History of the English Language
Tentative Syllabus
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ENGL 4300.01
HUM 131
MW 5:30-6:45
Instructor: Dr Micheal Crafton
Office hours: MW 3-5
Office location: TLC 2-225
Course: ENGL 4300 Studies in the English Language
Required texts and other readings/materials:
SL Lerer,
Seth. Inventing English: A Portable History of the
Language.
DC Crystal, David. How
Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or
Die.
Required for certification in Secondary English Education. May be repeated for credit as topic varies.
Brief Description:
Why do we spell might with a “gh” that we don’t pronounce? What in the world does the “Ye” in “Ye Webbe” mean? What are all these extra e’s there for? If Shakespeare is not written in Old English, then what is? And why would the academic world call Shakespeare’s English modern? Are other nations that adopt English changing its future? We shall answer a few of these and other questions in this a survey of the major periods of the development of the English Language from pre-Old English to Present Day English and some varieties therein. Some attention will be paid the basics of linguistic analysis and the relationship between language and social change. By the end of the quarter, students will understand: the basic concepts of comparative linguistics; the most significant external historical causes of change in the English language; the key internal changes in the history of English; the pronunciation of Old English and Middle English, at least well enough to demonstrate to high school students; the fundamental difference between the grammars of Old English and Modern English; the concept of dialect or variety in English; the difference between grammar and usage and the difference between prescriptive, descriptive, and scientific grammars.
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. May be repeated for credit as topic varies.
* Prerequisites: ENGL 1101 and 1102.
* A further specific description pertaining to this section of the course may be added.
Course Goals
* 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 related material.
* Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.
* Students will learn to use discipline-specific computer technologies related to the study of language such as listservs, word processing, and internet research.
Program Goals
* This course fulfills one of the departmental requirements for the completion of the English major.
* This course is required for secondary certification in English
* 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.
* This course contributes to the program goal of equipping students with a foundation in literary history and the issues surrounding literary study in contemporary culture.
* This course broadens students' desire and ability to take pleasure in their encounter with literature.
ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR GRADE WEIGHTS :
1.Exam # 1 = 20 %
2.Exam # 2 = 20 %
3.Exam # 3 = 30 % (counts more because of comprehensive essay question)
4.Participation = 10 %
5.Project = 20 %
WRITING-ACROSS-THE-CURRICULUM
(WAC) REQUIREMENT—This course counts toward satisfying the
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 assignments).
- 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, or just exchange.
Late Work: Generally, my policy for unexcused late work is that it
loses a third of a letter grade for every day it is late. Therefore, if a paper
is due on Monday and you turn it in on Wednesday, then 2/3rds of a letter grade
will be taken off. A C would be reduced
to a D+. There are, of course,
extenuating circumstances, but these need to be explained and documented.
Plagiarism: Intentional plagiarism, that is, the conscious adoption of someone else's writing or ideas as your own is a profanation of 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. See the English Department website on plagiarism for more detail.
http://www.westga.edu/%7Eengdept/Plagiarism/index.html
Daily
Assignments:
All chapter
references and page number references are to the texts listed above.
Week 1: English
and Englishes
M
18 Introduction; Handout from Atlas of Human Languages; Overview of
course; Introduction to web sites.
W
20 SL
Introduction; DC Chapters 1-3; Introduction of Journal Assignment.
Language Families
Websites: Krystal Ethnologue NVTC
-------------------------------
Week 2: Writing and Sounds
M
25 DC Chapters 4-8;
Introduction to IPA; (Some terms: phonetic, lexical, semantic, syntactic,
morphological, graphemic)
Some phonetics
links: Phonetics Animated; Toronto Phonetics Class; Interactive Head; Transcription Web Site
W
27 DC Chapter 9-12; Fun with
the IPA Handout; Spectrograms and more Spectrograms
-------------------------------
Week 3: Writing and Sounds
M
1 Labor Day: No Class!! Make some joyful phonemes!
W
3 DC Chapters 16-24; History
of Writing http://www.ancientscripts.com/ and other sites.
“History of Writing”;
“http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/2036/paleo.htm”
-------------------------------
Week 4: Sound and Writing Cont’d and Dialects
M
8 DC Chapters 45-48, 50
W
10 DC Chapters 51-55; Handout
------------------------------
Week 5: Indo-European and Language Families
M
15 DC Chapters 56-57;
Indo-European Hypothesis; Sir William Jones
W
17 DC Chapters 58-62; Handout
Reading: Proto-Germanic; Grimm’s Law
-------------------------------
Week 6: Story of English: Old English
M
22 Exam # 1
W 24 SL Chapter 1; Caedmon’s Hymn
-------------------------------
Week 7: Story of English: Old English
M
29 SL Chapter 2
W
1 SL Chapter 3
-------------------------------
Week 8: Story
of English: Middle English
M
6 SL Chapter 3-4(The
W
8 SL Chapter 5; Chaucer’s
General Prologue Renaissance and Enrichment
-------------------------------
Week 9: Story
of English: Middle English and Dialects
M
13 SL Chapter 6; Pearl Poet
and Piers Plowman; Reeve’s Tale
W
15 SL Chapter 7; Great Vowel
Shift
-------------------------------
Week 10: Story of English: Wrap up Old and Middle
M 20 Review
W
22 Exam # 2
-------------------------------
Week 11: Story of English: Renaissance
M 27 SL Chapter 8: Emerging Standard Prose
Fisher’s essay on the Chancery and
Standard English
W
29 SL Chapter 9; Shakespeare
Stephen Colbert and Shakespeare
-------------------------------
Week 12: Story
of English: Renaissance and Neoclassicism
M
3 SL Chapter 10; Enrichment –
New Words
W
5 SL Chapter 11; Spelling
Reform
-------------------------------
Week 13: Story
of English: Grammars and Dictionaries and American English
M
10 SL Chapter 12; Johnson’s
Dictionary
EModE_Notes_5-Neoclassical.htm
W
12 SL Chapter 13; Webster and
-------------------------------
Week 14: Story of English: American English
M 17 SL Chapter 14-15: American Regionalism and Mark Twain (American Chaucer?)
http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/AmDialLnx.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml
W
19 SL Chapter 16: African
American English
-------------------------------
Week 15: Story of English: American English
M
24 SL Chapter
17-18: OED, Modern Linguistics, and World Englishes
W
26 Thanksgiving
Holidays
-------------------------------
Week 15: Final
Things
M
1 Student Presentations
Students for
day one: Judy Ethridge, Ashley Adams, Philemon Amos,
Bert Doernbrack, Colleen Donnelly, Mac Elmore, Kelley Griffin, Stephen Mercier,
Todd Ollis, Danielle Turbyfield.
These are rather informal
5-10 minutes presentations of your research project. Handouts and / or visuals are fine, so long
as they don’t take up too much time.
However, let me say that putting together a one-page handout that
clearly states your thesis (the basic point of your project), the organization
of the project, and some zinger detail or two from the work is excellent. This kind of thing not only helps your fellow
students listen to and understand your presentation, but it also helps you
think clearer about the big picture of what you are doing.
W
3 Last Day of
Class: and Course Evaluation: Second day of presenters: Danielle Davidson, Alex
Davis, Abbey Frasier, Arielle Korsgaard, Sarah Lewis,
Randie Mayo, Noah Steed, Stephanie Urich, Initia Von Tonder, Lametrica Andrews.
-------------------------------
Final Exam:
Monday, December 8th 5:30-7:30 Exam # 3
Class Project
1. 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
a list of useful web sites see the following:
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hel/hel.html
http://www.westga.edu/~mcrafton/hel_links.html
Tests and Study Guides
http://www.westga.edu/~mcrafton/quizzes.html