English 4300    Fall 2003

  

Study Sheet for Final: 19th Century, American English, Colonialism, Variation in Grammar, Pronunciation, Style Shifting, and Code Shifting

The Romantic, Victorian and Modern Periods (Dates: 1770s, 1776, 1789, 1798)

How did the developments of industrial revolution, colonial expansion, and the wars affect the language?

Discuss the implications of the rise and enforcement of RP English? (The Education Act of 1870).What is RP English?

What is the story of the OED?  In what way is it an effect of the Romantic attitude toward language?

What historical and social factors contributed to the different attitudes toward language study during this period? 

Colonialism and American Dialects (Dates 1604, 1620, 1776, 1849, 1865)

What is meant by colonization? or colonialism?  When do our authors say it began in English?  Where in the British Isles?

What are the three types of colonialism discussed there?  Be ready to give an example of each.

What are the three basic movements of English to American?

What are the major dialect regions of America?

What is the basic relationship between English and Native American languages?

What is the connection between these areas and England?

Cite at least one example of a regional dialectal feature of a regional dialect that distinguishes it from another one.

What is meant by dialect leveling and internal differentiation regarding American dialects?

How, when, and from where did English come to America

What are the principal differences between the language of those who settled New England and those who settled Jamestown?

From the videotape you should recall the New England dialects being connected to r-less speech of East Anglia in England the early Virginians with an r-full speech of Cornwall and West Country in England.

What are some features of Scotch-Irish dialect in America?

From the videotape you should recall the connection between Scots-Irish migration to Philadelphia and then to the mountains and then to the West and the country through migration and media.Remember some of the traits of this dialect.

How is it that the Scotch-Irish dialect spread and has become so prominent 

What are the major non-English migrations to American?

Discuss the creole hypothesis of African-American Vernacular English?

From the videotape you should recall the connection between West African pidgin and Plantation Creole and Gullah and then African-American Vernacular English or Ebonics.

What is a pidgin versus a creole?What are some of the better know English creoles?

Finally, recall the latter migration of Europeans to American in the 19th century population the north, principally with Germans, Jews, and Italians, thus affecting the dialect areas in MilwaukeeChicagoDetroitBoston, and New York City.From the videotape you should recall the German, Italian and the Yiddish influence in their speech areas?

Variation in Grammar and Accent

Remember the sorts of things discussed as grammar: verb form, noun morphology, pronoun, and syntax.

What is problematic about modal auxiliaries in Scotland and the Southern US?

3.In the syntax of asking questions, what is a notable variation?

What is the difficulty of the relationship between determiners and nouns?

What in our pronoun system shows the greatest flux and variety?  Why?

6.What is regional dialectology and isoglosses?

    7. What is meant by linguistic atlases and how does that inform the new dictionary of     American English DARE?

Are people evaluated according to their accents? 

Style Shifting and Good and Bad English

What according to our authors is the meaning of the terms style shifting versus code shifting?

What is the relationship between style shifting and social identity?Be able to use the terms accommodation theory and convergence and divergence in your answer.

Why shift style or code?What triggers a shift in style?

What is the difference between good and bad English?How are judgments made why are they made?

What are the two primary camps of language judges?

How does political correctness factor into language judgments?

What is meant be grammar versus usage?

Comprehensive Question

Be prepared to discuss the really big picture of the history of the English language, the major stages and the major changes.