TEXTBOOK:
Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (4th ed.; ISBN 015500168X)

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  I can assure you that this course will be one of the most difficult but also one of the best classes you will ever take.  As a user of language, you already know a great deal about English intuitively.  In this course, we are going to learn about the history of our language, and as we do so, we'll also learn about the nuts and bolts of how languages work and change.  We'll take a lot of knowledge that you currently possess on an intuitive level and make you more conscious of it.  When you finish the course, you will have a better understanding of why English is the way it is (usually because of either historical accident or a universal linguistic rule), and you will have a store of conversation starters and fun facts to know and tell about your mother tongue.  Most of the material we will cover in this class is inherently interesting.  Who doesn't want to know the answers to questions such as

1. How do two people know when their conversation is over?
2. Why do people talk funny to babies?
3. How can anyone seriously propose that English, Hindi, and Persian are all descended from a common language when they're so different from one another?
4. Why is English spelling so screwy?

GOALS.  As my goals for this course, I want you

1. to develop your appreciation -- and respect -- for the complexity and beauty of the English language,
2. to become more conscious of what you are actually doing when you use language,
3. to know in basic outline the major events of the history of English,
4. to recognize that variations in language are not necessarily signs of inferiority, and
5. to be able to apply what you learn in this class to real-life situations and everyday language use.

1. a mid-term exam (260 points),
2. two short papers (240 points each), and
3. a final exam (260 points).

QUIZZES.  In addition to your graded assignments, I will also periodically give unannounced, ungraded quizzes.  These quizzes are primarily a diagnostic tool.  They help me see what you as a class are having trouble with, and they help you see what you still need to study before the exam.  I intend them to be a low-stress experience and therefore do not grade them, but I do collect them and look them over in order to get a sense of what you have learned and what you may still need to learn in order to do well in the class.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and papers in this class.  Class exercises and discussion constitute important, useful preparation for the course's graded assignments.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day's contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216.  My office hours this semester will be 3:30-5:00 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays.  If you cannot see me at this time, please, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  E-mail is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

EMAIL.  I may, on occasion, want to e-mail everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ e-mail addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an e-mail address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address you use more regularly.  That way, if I e-mail your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, just go to http://managemail.tcnj.edu/  and click “Mail Forwarding Manager.”  Follow the directions there to set up the mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to one or more of your classmates, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ e-mail username and password, choose this course (ENGL 20202 or ENGL 20203) from the drop-down menu.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the addresses you’ve selected.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.

Date	Topic	Assignment
R Aug 29	Introductions	----------
M Sep 2	NO CLASS	Labor Day
T Sep 3	Language Acquisition	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 1-24
R Sep 5	Conversation	language acquisition exercise
M Sep 9	Phonetics	conversation exercise; literary conversation exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 25-35
R Sep 12	Phonetics	phonetics exercise
M Sep 16	Sound Change	phonetics exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 35-41
R Sep 19	Sound Change	phonetics exercise, another phonetics exercise, and sound change exercise
M Sep 23	Sound and Sense	sound change exercise
R Sep 26	Sound and Sense	sound change exercise
M Sep 30	Indo-European languages and Grimm's Law	sound change exercise and Pyles and Algeo, pp. 61-94
R Oct 3	Inflection	Grimm's Law exercise
F Oct 4	NO CLASS	PAPER 1 DUE
M Oct 7	Inflection	inflection exercise and other inflection exercises
R Oct 10	Old English	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 95-133
M Oct 14	Old English	Old English exercise
R Oct 17	Old English	Old English exercise.  Click here for an example of a very good paper on “Thistles.”
M Oct 21	NO CLASS	Fall Break
W Oct 23	3:30-5:00 p.m.:  Optional Review Session	I will meet with any interested students from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in our regular classroom (Bliss 152).  Bring questions or topics that you would like to review for the mid-term exam.  Click here for a sample mid-term exam (in Microsoft Word format).  Click here for a review exercise on sound changes.  Click here for a review exercise on Old English.
R Oct 24	MID-TERM EXAM	Study, study, study
M Oct 28	Lexicon, Semantic Shift, and Derivation	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 237-285
R Oct 31	Middle English	semantic shift and derivation exercises; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 134-164
M Nov 4	Modern English and Great Vowel Shift	Middle English exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 165-181
R Nov 7	Quiz and Borrowing	Great Vowel Shift exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 286-311
M Nov 11	Quiz and Standardization	borrowing exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 182-211
R Nov 14	Syntax	----------
M Nov 18	Quiz, Syntax, and Transformations	syntax exercise
R Nov 21	Syntax and Transformations	transformations exercises; PAPER 2 DUE
M Nov 25	Quiz and Dialects	transformations exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 212-236
R Nov 28	NO CLASS	Thanksgiving
M Dec 2	Quiz and Registers	dialect exercise
R Dec 5	Dialects and Registers	registers exercise
M Dec 9	Dialects and Registers	dialect and registers exercises
W Dec 11	11 a.m.-12:20 p.m.:  Optional Review Session	I will meet with any interested students from 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in our regular classroom (Bliss 152).  Bring questions or topics that you would like to review for the final exam.  Click here for a sample final exam (in Microsoft Word format).
F Dec 13 at 8 a.m.	FINAL EXAM for ENGL 202 02 (9:30 a.m. section)	Study, study, study
M Dec 16 at 10:10 a.m.	FINAL EXAM for ENGL 202 03 (11 a.m. section)	Study, study, study

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