ENGL 3813 History and
Structure of the English Language
"As all other sublunary things are
subject to corruption and decay,
. . . so the learnedest and more eloquent languages are not free from
this
common fatality, but are liable to those alterations and revolutions,
to those
fits of inconstancy, and other destructive contingencies which are
unavoidably
incident to all earthly things."
(James Howell -
l630)
This class will study phonemes, morphemes, words, and syntactical patterns in order to analyze the structure of modern English. In addition, it will explore the pre-history of English and the changes in the sounds, forms, and vocabulary of English since its beginnings in approximately 449 AD. Required texts: Norman C. Stageberg and Dallin D. Oaks, An Introductory English Grammar, C. M. Millward, A Biography of the English Language and Workbook to Accompany A Biography of the English Language. Please bring the Workbook to class during the sections on the History of English because some exercises will be completed in class that will not be graded but will be covered on examinations. You may also wish to know about the History of the English Language Home Page on the World Wide Web. There is a link to it on the links page of my home page (du.edu/~aolsen/links.htm).
There will be weekly quizzes on the material covered the previous week, a midterm, and a comprehensive final examination. Because of the amount of material to be mastered, a student's grade for examinations will under no circumstances be lower than that of the final IF he or she has taken all of the quizzes and the midterm. A consistently high performance on the weekly quizzes and the midterm can count in the student's favor, but any missed quiz will be averaged in as zero in the student's grade. With the permission of the instructor, missed quizzes may be made up. The "examination grade" will be worth 2/3 of the final grade. The other l/3 will be the grade for a paper due Thursday, November 16. Undergraduate papers should be 6-8 pages, long and graduate papers 12-15 pages long. Suggested paper topics will be distributed, but students are welcome to develop their own topics and submit them to the instructor for approval. (Approval must be given prior to November 9.) Attendance is mandatory, and more than three unexcused absences will reduce the final grade by one letter grade.
Grading
Undergraduates
Graduates
Quizzes: 80 points
Quizzes: 80 points
Workbook: 170 points
Workbook: 170 points
Midterm: 100 points
Midterm: 100 points
Final: 200 points
Final: 200 points
Paper: 100 points
Paper:
200 points
Total: 650 points
Total:
750 points
Schedule of Assignments
Tuesday, September 12 INTRODUCTION
Thursday, September 14
"Features
Common to All Languages" and "Changes in Language," Millward,
1-16
Workbook
1.6 and 1.9
"English
Phonemes," Stageberg, 7-30; Exercise 1-19; "A Letter from
Prison," Millward, 239, and "A Future Dialect,"
Millward, 312
Tuesday, September 19
"Phonetic
Processes," Stageberg, 31-38; Exercises 2-1, 2-6, 2-7, and 2-8;
"Spelling and Pronunciation," Stageberg, 39-46; Exercises 3-3 and
3-8; "Stress," Stageberg, 47-56; Exercises 4-10 and 4-12; Internal
Open Juncture," Stageberg, 69-73; Exercises 6-l and 6-2;
"Morphemes," Stageberg, 87-99; Exercises 8-2, 8-6, 8-7, 8-11, and
8-12
Workbook 2.3 and 2.13
QUIZ #1
Thursday, September 21 "Morphemes,"
Stageberg, 100-118; Exercises 8-l8, 8-19, and 8-26; "Words,"
Stageberg, 119-25; Exercises 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, and 9-5
Tuesday, September 26 "Processes
of Word Formation" and "Inflectional Paradigms," Stageberg,
127-161; Exercises 11-5, 11-9, and 11-10; "Form Classes," Stageberg,
163-177; Exercises 12-3, 12-5, 12-8, and 12-9
QUIZ #2
Thursday, September 28 "Structure
Classes," Stageberg, 179-99; Exercises 13-2, 13-5,
13-6, 13-9, 13-11, 13-15, and 13-16;
"Noun and Verb Phrases," Stageberg, 203-21; Exercises 14-2, 14-8,
14-13, and 14-18
Tuesday, October 3
"Basic
Sentence Patterns," Stageberg, 223-248; Exercises 15-l, 15-2, 15-3,
15-4,
15-5, 15-6, 15-7, 15-8, 15-9, 15-10,
15-12, 15-13, 15-15, 15-16, and 15-17
QUIZ #3
Thursday, October 5
"Parts
of Speech: Positional Classes,"
Stageberg, 249-276; Exercises l6-2, l6-3, l6-4, l6-6, 16-7, l6-9,
l6-12, l6-13,
l6-l8, l6-19, l6-21, l6-22, 16-23, and l6-26
Tuesday, October 10
"Modification,"
Stageberg, 277-294; Exercises 17-4, 17-6, 17-8, 17-14, 17-19, and 17-20
QUIZ #4
Thursday, October 12
"Modification,"
Stageberg, 294-314; Exercises 17-21, 17-23,
17-24, 17-28, 17-32, 17-33, 17-35, 17-37, and 17-38
Tuesday, October 17
First Hour: Review
Second
Hour: MIDTERM
Thursday, October 19
"Writing,"
Millward, 34-41; "Demarcating the History of English," Millward,
16-19; "Language Families and Indo-European," Millward, 44-59
Workbook
3.3, 3.9, and 4.3
Tuesday, October 24
"From
Indo-European to Germanic," Millward, 59-73; "Old English,"
Millward, 76-82
Workbook
4.5, 4.6, 4.8 [identify five cognates in each net; do not include
borrowed
words like Jesus], 5.5, and 5.7
QUIZ #5
Thursday, October 26
"Old English," Millward,
82-111
Workbook 5.10 and 5.16
Tuesday, October 31 "Old
English," Millward, 111-138
Workbook
5.19 and 5.23
QUIZ #6
Thursday, November 2
"Middle
English," Millward, 142-181
Workbook
6.3, 6.6A and B, and 6.9
Tuesday, November 7
"Middle
English," Millward, 181-222
Workbook
6.12, 6.13, and 6.15
QUIZ #7
Thursday, November 9
"Early
Modern English," Millward, 224-298
Workbook
7.4, 7.21, and 7.24
Tuesday, November 14
"Present-Day
English," Millward, 302-341
Workbook
8.3 and 8.4
QUIZ #8
Thursday, November
16 First Hour: “English Around
the
World,” Millward, 344-404
Workbook
9.8 and 9.9
Second
Hour: REVIEW