Grammar in Context

Grammar in Context

The ultimate purpose of studying grammar at A-Level is not to label and classify in isolation, but to analyse how grammatical choices create meaning in authentic texts. This lesson brings together everything you have learned about grammar and demonstrates how to apply it in the kind of integrated textual analysis required by AQA 7702. The key principle is always the same: identify the grammatical feature, explain its effect, and relate it to the text\'s meaning, purpose, audience, and context.

Grammar and Register

Different registers — varieties of language shaped by field, tenor, and mode — display characteristic grammatical patterns. Being able to identify these patterns is fundamental to textual analysis:

Formal/Academic Register

• Complex noun phrases with extensive pre- and post-modification
• Passive voice constructions (especially agentless passives)
• Nominalisation — converting processes into noun phrases
• Subordination and hypotactic sentence structures
• Impersonal constructions (It is argued that...; There is evidence to suggest...)
• Hedging through modal verbs and adverbs (may, might, perhaps, possibly)
• Third person reference rather than first person
• Present tense for generalisation (Studies show...)