Good resource, with examples of lexical change, grammatical change etc.
Analysis:
The sentences constructed by Carroll are complex in
comparison to those most frequently seen in modern texts, and the length and
complexity of each is in part a result of the represented speech used
throughout, as well as parentheses and
semicolons, which are less common in modern English texts than they
would have been at the time of Carroll’s writing (1862). For example, one
sentence “There was nothing very remarkable […] a large rabbit-hole under the
hedge,” is fourteen and half lines, and contains the embedded exclamatory speech
“’Dear, dear! I shall be too late!’”. The modal auxiliary verb “shall” has become
lower frequency lexis since the book was first written, and more commonly the
contraction “I’ll be too late!” is now seen. This form of elision has become
more common even in modern written texts within the same genre as ‘Alice’,
which may support Fairclough’s informalisation theory, as ‘I’ll’ is seen as
more informal, and may be seen as proof for prescriptivists that the English
language is a ‘crumbling castle’, once perfect, and now undergoing degradation.
It may be that the contraction has become more common because of our increased
reliance upon technology, and our growing desire for instant gratification –
for most, it is quicker to type ‘I’ll’ than ‘I shall’, especially as most
operating systems now spell-check and insert the apostrophe automatically. The
lexis ‘shall’ in fact, is almost exclusively used when making suggestions nowadays
e.g. “shall we go?” Once again, this is likely for ease of expression, as it is
quicker than “Do you want to go?”
The exclamation
“Dear, dear!” is also much lower frequency in modern language use. When the
book was written, it’s likely that the phrases that we might use more commonly
today (e.g. ‘Oh my God!’) were considered blasphemous and therefore unsuitable
for a children’s book. These phrases might have been considered to be as bad as
profanities like ‘fuck’ are today, especially with the more commonly shared
religious ideologies of the 1800s.
Good linked observations. More needed in the first para on contextual factiors, perhaps the fact that it is handwritten and therefore probably not fully edited (we know it is a draft, not the final version) and the suitability for the audiences of long sentences, linking to stories often being read to children so it would be up to the adults in that case to cope with handling the complexities, and higher demands on the reader being common in older texts. You could do some close analysis of the demands - is the sentence easily 'chunked' for reading aloud? Does it have any phonological appeal? Link to a modern example e.g. Dahl? Other wider reading?
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