History of the English Language


English 202
Section 02:
11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. TF
Recreation Center 116
Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss 216
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours: 2:00-3:20 p.m. TF
and by appointment
E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOKS:
Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language (4th ed.)
Paul R. Frommer and Edward Finegan, Looking at Languages (2nd ed.)
 

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 such questions 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, Russian, and Persian are all descended from a common language when they're so different from one another?
    4. Why is English spelling so screwy?
But you will have to work hard to master a large amount of new material in order to be able to answer these questions adequately. In this course, you will be introduced to a lot of information that will be entirely new to you. You will need to digest, memorize, and assimilate a great deal as the semester goes along. But I will help you in every way I can, and your classmates will be there with you the whole way.  NOTE THAT THIS COURSE DOES NOT CARRY ANY GENERAL EDUCATION CREDIT OR MEET ANY GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS.
 

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

    1. to develop your appreciation -- and respect -- for the complexity and beauty of our 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.


REQUIREMENTS.  This course consists of four graded assignments:

    1. a mid-term exam,
    2. two short research papers (5 pages), and
    3. a comprehensive final exam (with an essay question that asks you to review all the material from class since the beginning of the term).
The exams and papers will each be worth 250 points, and your final grade will be based on a 1000-point scale:  A = 930-1000 points, A- = 900-929, B+ = 870-899, B = 830-869, B- = 800-829, C+ = 770-799, C = 730-769, C- = 700-729, D = 600-699, and F = below 600.  In addition to the graded assignments, I will periodically give 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 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 2:00-3:20 p.m. TF. If you cannot come to see me at those times, please feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment to see me 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.
 

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  An e-mail discussion list has been created for this course. To subscribe, send the message, "SUBSCRIBE HOTEL-L your name" to listproc@list.TCNJ.EDU.  Note that you must send the subscribe message from your own personal e-mail account (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 just by sending what you want to circulate to HOTEL-L@list.TCNJ.EDU (although, again, you must send such messages from your personal e-mail account). This is a great way to get in touch with your classmates, form study groups, ask me or your classmates questions, and generally share information about class.  I encourage you to use the discussion list a great deal in the course of the semester.
 

COURSE SCHEDULE.  (This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.)
 
Date Topic Assignment
F Sept 3 Introductions ----------
T Sept 7 Language Universals History, pp. 1-15
F Sept 10 Language Acquisition ----------
T Sept 14 Language Acquisition and Conversation handout from class
F Sept 17 Conversation and Phonetics Looking at Languages 6.06-6.07 and handout from class
T Sept 21 Phonetics handout from class
F Sept 24 Phonetics and Phonology Looking at Languages 2.01, 2.06, 2.10, and 3.05 (#1-4 only)
T Sept 28 Phonology Looking at Languages 3.06, 3.07, 3.08, 3.09, 3.10, 3.11, 3.13, and 3.15
F Oct 1 Sound Changes Looking at Languages 10.04
PAPER 1 DUE
T Oct 5 Sound Changes Looking at Languages 10.06 (A-C and F only), 10.07, and handout from class
F Oct 8 Sound Changes and Indo-European Looking at Languages 10.10 (A-B only)
T Oct 12 Indo-European and Grimm's Law History, pp. 16-40
handout from class
F Oct 15 Grimm's Law and Morphology handout from class
T Oct 19 Morphology Looking at Languages 1.03, 1.05, and 1.08
F Oct 22 Inflections and Old English Looking at Languages 1.09 and 1.12
History, pp. 41-71
T Oct 26 Inflections and Old English Looking at Languages 1.10 (A-B and E only)
History, pp. 72-104
F Oct 29 MID-TERM EXAM ----------
T Nov 2 The Norman Conquest and Creoles History, pp. 105-153
F Nov 5 Middle English and Dialects History, pp. 154-194
T Nov 9 Dialects and the Great Vowel Shift Looking at Languages 8.01 and 8.05
F Nov 12 Great Vowel Shift, the Renaissance, and Semantic Change handout from class
History, pp. 195-247
T Nov 16 Semantic Change and Syntax handout from class
F Nov 19 Syntax Looking at Languages 1.01 and handout from class
T Nov 23 Syntax and Transformations handout from class
F Nov 26 NO CLASS Thanksgiving
T Nov 30 Transformations handout from class
F Dec 3 Renaissance Syntax and Standardization handout from class
History, pp. 248-289
T Dec 7 American English and Registers History, pp. 345-400
PAPER 2 DUE
F Dec 10 Registers Looking at Languages 7.04, 7.05, 7.07

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