ENGL4005: Hist Eng Lang (49619)

Kretzschmar, William

TR 9:35 AM

Park Hall 269


ENGL/LING 4005/6005     Fall 2021     Kretzschmar

 

History of the English Language     TTh 9:35-10:50, Park 269

 

Office: 317 Park.  Email: kretzsch@uga.edu. Office Hours: TTH 8:30-9:30 via Skype (bill.kretzschmar), and by appointment (email me to set one up). In-person office hours will be held in Park 317.

 

Catalog:  The development of present English through the stages of Old English, Middle English, and early Modern English. Study of elementary phonetics, phonemics, sound change, and dialect variation.

 

Texts:  W. Kretzschmar, The Emergence and Development of English: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018; C. S. Lewis, Studies in Words, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1967.

 

Course Conduct:  Lecture/discussion, on Zoom or in person depending on conditions at UGA. There will be five in-class tests and no final exam ("continuous assessment").  Computer exercises are due by email before the class period discussed. There will be one short paper (5 pp) and a major paper due at the end of the term (c. 15 pp undergrad, c. 20 pp. grad). Papers will be prepared according to standard practices for academic papers, and include appropriate use of the scholarly literature. There will be a proposal (2-3 pp) for the final paper due in early November. Grades will be based on class attendance (or Zoom presence, 90 pts), the five in-class exams (250 pts), the short paper (100 pts), and the final paper (50 pts proposal, 150 pts final paper). 640 total points. Course info will be on the Web at the UGA eLC  (elc.uga.edu).

 

Goals and Topics: This course will introduce students to some basic concepts of language study and to the history and present status of the English language.  It will be intensive:  we have much ground to cover. We will examine texts to illustrate changes.   Sound recordings will be played in class to illustrate different varieties of English. At the end of the course, students will have gained perspective with which to evaluate common questions regarding language and linguistics in the modern world.

 

eLC reading:  1: M. Tomasello, Origins of Language, Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (Cambridge: Harvard UP), 8-42; 2: Languages in Paradise, in U. Eco, Serendipities (New York: Columbia UP, 1998), 23-52; 3: Complex Systems, in A. Burkette and W. Kretzschmar, Introduction to Language and Complex Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, forthcoming);  4:Grammar and Complex Systems, in W. Kretzschmar, Language and Complex Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015); 5: Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book 1:1-23 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994); 6: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entries from 870 to 1016, ed. Swanton (London: Routledge, 1998); 7: W. Kretzschmar and M. Stenroos, Evidence from Surveys and Atlases in the History of the English Language, in T. Nevalainen and E. Traugott, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 111-122; 8:  J. Milroy, Historical Description and the Ideology of the Standard Language, in L. Wright, ed., The Development of Standard English 1300-1800 (Cambridge, 2000), 11-28; 9: R. Lippi-Green, English with an Accent, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2012), Ch. 7.

 

 

Schedule:

Aug 19            Th:  Course intro.       

Aug 26, 28      T: EDE Intro, Ch 1                             Th: App 1: words, sounds

Aug 31, Sep 2 T: App 1: sounds                                Th: eLC 1: Tomasello Origins

Sep 7, 9           T: App 2: syntax, discourse                Th: eLC 2: Eco Languages, EX 1

Sep 14, 16       T: Ch 2                                                Th: eLC 3: Burkette/Kretzschmar CS

Sep 21, 23       T: Ch 3                                                Th: eLC 4: Kretzschmar Grammar    

Sep 28, 30       T: Ch 4                                               Th: eLC 5: Bede EH, EX 2

Oct 5, 7           T: Ch 5                                                Th: eLC 6: ASC

Oct 12, 14       T: Ch 6                                                Th: eLC 7: Kretzschmar/Stenroos Evidence

Oct 19, 21       T: Ch 7, short paper due                   Th: App3, EX 3

Oct 26, 28       T: App3                                               Th: Ch 8

Nov 2, 4          T: Ch 8: GVS, Ch 9                            Th: Ch 9 OED, proposal due

Nov 9, 11        T: Ch 10                                              Th: Lewis, EX 4

Nov 16, 18      T: Lewis                                              Th: Lewis

Nov 23            T: Ch 11                                              Th: Thanksgiving, no class

Nov 30, Dec 2 T: eLC 8: Milroy, eLC 9: Lippi-Green  Th: Ch 12, EX 5

Dec. 7              No class; Paper due by email.