History of the English Language
English 202
Section 4
11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. MR
Bray 126

Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bray 125A
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours: 9:30-11:00 a.m. MR,
2:00-3:30 p.m. TF,
and by appointment
E-mail: available through SOCS

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 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 historical accident or a universal linguistic rule), and you will have a store of conversation starters and fun facts to know and tell about y our 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?
5. Why do stroke victims sometimes repeat a word or say the wrong word when they talk?

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.

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

1. to develop your appreciation - and respect - for the complexity and beauty of your 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 three graded assignments:

1. a mid-term exam,
2. a research paper (5-7 typewritten pages), and
3. a comprehensive final exam (covering all material since the beginning of the term).

The exams will each be worth 350 points and the paper will be worth 300 points for a total of 1000 points (2 X 350 + 300). Letter grades on papers will be translated into points and final point totals into letter grades according to the following chart :

Attendance. Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and paper 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, h owever, 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 Bray 125A. My office hours this semester will be 9:30-11:00 a.m. MR and 2:00-3:30 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 befor e or after class to arrange an appointment to see me at another time. You may also contact me by e-mail (through SOCS), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices (outside Bray 108).

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. 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. (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.)

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