History of the English Language

Tentative Syllabus

ENGL 4300.01W

HUM 227

MW 3:30-4:45

Instructor: Dr Micheal Crafton

Office hours: MW 9-11

Office location: TLC 2-225; Bonner House

Course: ENGL 4300 Studies in the English Language

Required texts and other readings/materials:

Graddol, David, Dick Leith and Joan Swann. English: History, Diversity and Change. London: Routledge, 2001.

Course description: A sustained analysis of a particular linguistic theme, an approach to, or a regional expression of the English language. Regular offerings in the history of the English language and its development from Anglo-Saxon to contemporary varieties of world English will rotate with other topics. ENGL 4300 be repeated for credit as topic varies (for example, instead of History of the English Language, one could take Grammar of Introduction to Linguistics).

Learning Outcomes:

Students will understand the general principles of comparative linguistics.
Students will appreciate the most significant historical causes of change in the English language.
Students will develop an understanding of the fundamental difference between the grammar and usage of English.
Students will develop the ability to understand and articulate the concept of dialect or variety in English.
Students will apply the tools of language analysis to "real-world" situations of teaching students in composition and literature classes.
Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well supported analysis of course-related material.
Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and of the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.

Relationship of course goals to program goals:

This course fulfills one of departmental requirements for the completion of the English major.

This course fulfills one of the requirements for secondary education certification.

Students will develop the analytical, oral and written skills to pursue graduate study or careers in teaching, writing, business and a variety of other fields.

Students will be able to define and pursue independent research agendas.

Courses seek to broaden students' desire and ability to take pleasure in their encounter with literature.

Students will develop an appreciation for the structure and function of the English language.

WRITING-ACROSS-THE-CURRICULUM (WAC) REQUIREMENT—This course counts toward satisfying the College of Arts and Sciences requirement WAC requirement. That means that it is a writing-intensive course in which we will use a number of modes of writing as tools for learning and thinking about the material we are studying. Many of these writing activities will be in-class exercises designed to generate discussion or to assess your comprehension of discussion or material read or viewed. Other writing activities will be more traditional academic writing assignments, but in all of these you will be asked to consider writing as a process, to revise and reconsider your work, and to use writing itself to strengthen your thinking and analytical skills as well as your skills in literary interpretation throughout the term.

Writing Assignments:

Formal Assignment: (Counts 20% of total grade): A standard research paper (10 pages long, 8 to 10 references) on a topic related to the history of the language (e.g. teaching dialects of English, theories of the Great Vowel Shift, dialectal variations in Chaucer). (For more information see below.)

Informal Assignments: Our informal assignments will consist of the following (These are folded into Participation 10% and the quality of other assignemtns).

Journal keeping on language related topics (local, family dialects and new and unusual words)
Email assignments (on topics assignment)
Discussion Board Assignments: (weekly required)
Short essays written in-class to enhance understanding of the material (every other week or so)

Class Policies:

Attendance: Since this class meets only twice a week, attendance is all the more important. Attendance should be understood as more than merely occupying space in a passive manner; rather, it should be understand as a productive act. In fact, it should be considered a production in the way that creating a paper or report is considered as a production. In order to get full credit, your presence must be known, and it must be known as that of a prepared student working to make the class an event of learning, of intellectual and artistic exchange.

Late Work: Generally, my policy for unexcused late work is that it loses a letter grade for every day it is late. There are, of course, extenuating circumstances, but these need to be made and made well.

Plagiarism: Intentional plagiarism, that is, the conscious adoption of someone else's writing or ideas as your own is a profanation to everything I hold important. If a student is clearly guilty of this, the result will be an F for the class and a report to the disciplinary officials of the University.

Daily Assignments:

All chapter references and page number references are to the text listed above.

Week 1: English and Englishes

M 18 Introduction pp. 1-2; pp. 382 ff; Handout from Atlas of Human Languages; Overview of course; Introduction to web sites

W 20 Chapter 1, pp. 1-15 (including Reading A): Introduction of Journal Assignment. (Some terms: phonetic, lexical, semantic, syntactic, morphological, graphemic.)

-------------------------------

Week 2: Whose English?

M 25 Chapter 1 (remaining pages)

W 27 Reading B and C from Chapter 1; Fun with the IPA Handout and p. 386 Chapter 7, pp. 262-268

-------------------------------

Week 3: Writing and Sounds

M 1 Labor Day: No Class!!

W 3 Chapter 2, pp. 41-49; History of Writing http://www.ancientscripts.com/ and other sites.

-------------------------------

Week 4: Cont’d

M 8 Chapter 2, pp. 49-63

W 10 Chapter 2, pp. 64-80.