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 will 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 11:00 a.m.-12:20 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.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  An e-mail discussion list has been created for this course.  To subscribe, send the message, "SUBSCRIBE SHOTEL-L your name" to listproc@list.TCNJ.EDU.  Note that you must send the subscribe message from your own personal e-mail account (that is, from "yourname2@tcnj.edu" or from "yourname@aol.com," but not from one of the generic "student@tcnj.edu" accounts in the computer labs).  After you have subscribed to the list, you may circulate messages to all the members of the list simply by sending what you want to circulate to SHOTEL-L@list.TCNJ.EDU (although, again, you must send the message from your personal e-mail account).  This is a great way to get in touch with your classmates, form study groups, ask your classmates questions, and generally share information about class.  I encourage you to use the discussion list a great deal.  I myself sometimes use the list to make important announcements that I may have forgotten to make in class.  NOTE: You can always access your personal TCNJ e-mail account from the web anywhere -- including from the computer labs on campus -- just by going to https://secure-web.tcnj.edu/imp/index.php3.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  Dates and assignments for Section 02 (3:30-4:50 p.m. TF) are in green.  Dates and assignments for Section 04 (9:30-10:50 a.m. MR) are in red.  Dates and assignments in black are for both sections, as are all the links.

Date	Topic	Assignment
T Aug 28/R Aug 30	Introductions	----------
M Sep 3	NO CLASS	Labor Day
F Aug 31/T Sep 4	Language Acquisition	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 1-24
T Sep 4	NO CLASS	Monday schedule
R Sep 6/F Sep 7	Conversation	language acquisition exercise
M Sep 10/T Sep 11	Phonetics	conversation exercise; literary conversation exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 25-35
R Sep 13/F Sep 14	Phonetics	phonetics exercise
M Sep 17/T Sep 18	Sound Change	phonetics exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 35-41
R Sep 20/F Sep 21	Sound Change	phonetics exercise and sound change exercise
M Sep 24/T Sep 25	Sound Change	phonetics exercise and sound change exercise
R Sep 27/F Sep 28	Sound and Sense	sound change exercise
M Oct 1/T Oct 2	Indo-European languages and Grimm's Law	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 61-94
R Oct 4/F Oct 5	Inflection	Grimm's Law exercise and sound change exercise
M Oct 8/T Oct 9	Inflection	inflection exercise
R Oct 11/F Oct 12	Old English	PAPER 1 DUE
M Oct 15/T Oct 16	Old English	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 95-133; Old English exercise
R Oct 18/F Oct 19	Old English	Old English exercise and sound change exercise
M Oct 22/T Oct 23	NO CLASS	Fall Break
R Oct 25/F Oct 26	MID-TERM EXAM	Study, study, study
M Oct 29/T Oct 30	Lexicon, Semantic Shift, and Derivation	Pyles and Algeo, pp. 237-285
R Nov 1/F Nov 2	Middle English	semantic shift and derivation exercises; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 134-164
M Nov 5/T Nov 6	Modern English and Great Vowel Shift	Middle English exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 165-181
R Nov 8/F Nov 9	Borrowing	Great Vowel Shift exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 286-311
M Nov 12/T Nov 13	Standardization	borrowing exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 182-211
R Nov 15/F Nov 16	Syntax	PAPER 2 DUE
M Nov 19/T Nov 20	Syntax and Transformations	syntax exercise
R Nov 22/F Nov 23	NO CLASS	Thanksgiving
M Nov 26/T Nov 27	Syntax and Transformations	transformations exercises
R Nov 29/F Nov 30	Dialects	transformations exercise; Pyles and Algeo, pp. 212-236
M Dec 3/T Dec 4	Registers	dialect exercise
R Dec 6/F Dec 7	Dialects and Registers	registers exercise
M Dec 10/T Dec 11	Dialects and Registers	dialect and registers exercises
W Dec 12	Review Session	Bring questions.  The review session will be held in Bliss 152 at 2 p.m. (not at our regular class meeting time).  syntax exercise
Finals Week	FINAL EXAM	Study, study, study

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