Week |
Topics/Events |
|
|
- No class Monday, 1/2: New Year's Day observed
- Course logistics
- Unit 1: Background & Prehistory
- Historical linguistics
- Overview
of the nature and component systems of language
- Language
'Families': What are they and how did they
arise?
- The Prehistory
Of English: Indo-European;
Proto- and Common Germanic; Brief history of early Western Europe; Britain
before the Anglo-Saxons; Periods in the history
of the English language
|
Due Weeks 1 and 2:
1-1
Language Families of the World (by Finegan) -
ON BLACKBOARD This
is a long reading with many details. Look at the course
objectives before
you read to focus your reading.
1-2 Language Files 12.2, 12.11, 12.12-
ON BLACKBOARD
1-3 "Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans" by
Calvert Watkins ON BLACKBOARD
Due when textbook arrives:
1-4 Crystal (Encyclopedia): Modelling English
pp. 2-3
|
Week
2 - 1/9-12 |
|
|
Week
3 - 1/16-19 |
- NO CLASS MON., 1/16 - MLK DAY
- TUESDAY, 1/17 FOLLOWS A MONDAY SCHEDULE
- This will not affect our class schedule, but it does mean that I won't have office hour that Tuesday.
-
The
Old English Period - ca. 500 CE to ca.
1100 CE
- Anglo-Saxon
Britain: Raiding, Conquest and
Settlement of Romano-Celtic Britain
by the Anglo-Saxons; conversion
to Christianity and England's first
Golden Age
- The Viking Invasions and Viking/Anglo-Saxon Mixing: The Wars with
the Danes; King Alfred's Achievements
and Legacy; Famous Works of Old
English
- Why
Old English looks and sounds so foreign
to the modern ear
- Sound
and spelling: Old vs. Modern English
sounds and spelling
|
|
Week
4 - 1/23-26 |
|
Here is the historical linguistics problem I mentioned
in class:
Systematic Sound Correspondences: English and German
Reading for Week 4:
2-1
Crystal p. 5 and Chs. 2 & 3 "The origins of
English" and "Old English"
2-2 Crystal Ch. 17: "The Sound System", pp.
234-249. Read all of this material to get a general
idea of English sounds, but see course objectives for material that will be tested
from this section. You do not have to learn
all of the details presented in this chapter.
>> I may skip the subunit on writing if we
do not finish the Old English period in Week 4<<
[[2-3
Crystal Ch. 18: "The Writing System", pp. 256-265.
As with #10, read all of the assigned pages, but consult
our course
objectives for the material that will be tested.
2-4 Crystal Ch. 18: "English
Spelling", pp. 272-277.]]
|
Week
5 - 1/30-2/2 |
- Midterm, Thursday, 4/28
- Unit
3: The Middle English Period - ca. 1100 CE to
ca. 1500 CE
- 1066
and All That: The Norman Conquest & Medieval
England
- Norman & Parisian
French at the top of English society
- England
becomes a diglossic/triglossic society
- Lexicon:
General information about vocabulary and
change in vocabulary
- Lexicon:
French influence on English vocabulary & spelling
- French
fades and English takes over high-function
uses
- Literature:
Chaucer and other Middle English poets
|
READING FOR WEEK 5:
3-1
Crystal Ch. 4 "Middle English", pp. 30-55.
Course objectives have been updated to reflect material that will be tested.
-------Not assigned: ---------
3-2 Crystal Ch. 8 "The Nature of the Lexicon",
pp. 118, 119, pp. 120-123
3-3 Crystal Ch. 9 "The Sources of the Lexicon",
pp. 124-131, pp. 132-135
3-4 Crystal Ch. 10 "Etymology", pp. 136-139
|
Week
6 - 2/6-9 |
|
READING FOR WEEK 6:
3-2, 3-3, and 3-4 above
|
Week
7 - 2/13-17 |
- CLASS MEETS AT NOON ON FRIDAY, 2/17, USUAL ROOM
Unit
4: The Early Modern English Period - ca. 1500 CE
to 1800 CE
- Early
Modern English: English becomes recognizable
to the modern ear and eye
- The
Great Vowel Shift
- Changes
in economics and class structure in England
- The
Renaissance & the Enlightenment: Revival
of Greek and Latin classics; the beginnings of
science and technology; massive borrowing of "big
words" from Latin and Greek
|
>> CLASS MEETS M-F THIS WEEK, AND DOES NOT
MEET MON., 2/20
READING
FOR WEEK 7 (finish by Wednesday):
4-1 Crystal
Ch. 5 Early Modern English pp. 56-75
4-2 Crystal Ch. 6 Modern English pp. 76-77
PROGRESS REPORT #1 DUE WEDS., 2/14. |
Week
8 - 2/20-23 |
- NO CLASS MON., 2/20 - WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY OBSERVED
- Unit
4 cont'd
- Unit
5: The Origins and Ongoing Process of the Standardization
of English
- Variation
in English: Standardization in England and
America
- Class
anxiety leads to linguistic insecurity
- The
first English dictionaries and grammars
- The
rise of prescriptive grammar
- Printing
and the slow standardization of spelling
- The
major standard-setting (codifying) works
of English scholarship and literature
|
5-1
The Origins of Standard English - Crystal pp. 54-55
5-2 The Search for Stability & Johnson's Dictionary
- Crystal pp. 74-75
5-3 The Rise of Prescriptive Grammar - Crystal pp. 78-79
5-4 ON BLACKBOARD: "Standardisation and Writing",
from Dick Leith's A Social History of English pp.
31-57
|
| Week
9 - 2/27-3/1 |
|
|
| Week
10 - 3/5-8 |
- Unit
6: The Modern Period: Modern English; Empire
& World English: The Origins and Ongoing Process by Which English
Has Been Carried to Far Corners of the Globe
- English
expands beyond Britain with first the British
Empire, then American world power
- New
Englishes develop in British colonies: India,
the Americas, Australia, and elsewhere
- English
as a major second language around the world
- English-based
pidgins and creoles emerge around the world
- Borrowings
from many languages into the English lexicon
- Language
policy in English-speaking countries: Contrasting
the USA with Australia, South Africa
|
6-1 TBA
6-2 Crystal Ch. 6 Modern English, pp. 80-91
6-3 Crystal Ch. 7 World English, pp. 92-97, 106-115. |
| Exam
Week - 3/12-16 |
Final
Exam Mon., 3/12, 10:10-12 pm |
|
|
Back
to top of page
|
