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English Linguistics 2

The History and the Development of the English Language

(HEL)

Míša Hejná ['miːʃa 'ɦɛɪnaː]

Course guide Spring 2018

Sundberg, Minna. 2015. “‘Language Family Tree.” Stand Still, Stand Silent, http://tinyurl.com/jrx8uw3 (Accessed January 1st, 2016).

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Contact: Course leader: Míša Hejná (or Michaela Hejná) Office hours: building 1481, room 331; Mondays 10:00-11:00am (teaching weeks) Email: misa.hejna@cc.au.dk If you cannot make these times to come and see me, please email me to make an appointment (not the night before the ideal meeting time). Teaching team: Míša Hejná (MH) Anne Mette Nyvad (AMN) Helle Kaalund Tornbo (HKT) email: amn@cc.au.dk hkt@cc.au.dkd

Lecture: There is a lecture every week (apart from session 11): Venue: Building 1482, room 105 (Nobel Park Auditorium) Time: Mondays, 15:15-16:00 Seminars: Seminar sessions take place weekly: Group A: Fri 8:15-10:00 building 1481 (room 264) MH *W15 – Fri 10:15-12:00; 1465 (room 315); with HKT *W17 - Thu 8:15-10:00; usual venue (1481, 264) Group B: Fri 10:15-12:00 building 1481 (room 264) AMN Group C: Fri 8:15-10:00 building 1465 (room 215) HKT Group D: Fri 8:15-10:00 building 1481 (room 237) AMN BA-minor 1 Fri 10:15-12:00 building 1465 (room 215) MH *W15 – Fri 12:15-14:00; 1485 (room 238); with AMN *W17 - Thu 11:15-13:00; 1453 (room 131) BA-minor 2 Thu 14:15-16:00 building 1465 (room 215) AMN *W18 – with MH Course description: The aim of the course is to give students the chance to develop their knowledge of English syntax at a high level and their knowledge of the history of the English language. Emphasis is placed on students’ ability to give an account of the history and syntax of the English language based on appropriate analytical and theoretical tools. The course also deals with historical variations such as Old English, Middle English and Modern English and with the geographical and social variations of the language and the historical conditions on which they are based.

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For the course catalogue see: BA: http://kursuskatalog.au.dk/en/coursecatalog/Course/show/62120/ BA minor: http://kursuskatalog.au.dk/en/coursecatalog/Course/show/62123/

Prerequisites: For BA major students, the course and the examination are structured on the assumption that students know, understand and master the content of English Linguistics 1: Phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax. The course is also based on the knowledge acquired by students in the courses taught during the first year of the programme, both in the linguistic disciplines and in literature, history and social conditions. For BA minor students, the course and the examination are structured on the assumption that students know, understand and master the content of the linguistic part of the course Introduction to the Study of English.

Assessment: The assessment consists of a three-day set home assignment, graded on the 7-point scale and externally co-examined. For more details, see the “AS & HEL exam guide” available on Blackboard (HEL route: Blackboard > Assessment; AS route: > Course plan and administration).

In the evaluation of the exam performance, emphasis is placed on the extent to which the student:

- Demonstrates knowledge of concepts, methods and approaches within the subject area, i.e. within the history of the English language and within detailed syntactic analysis of English.

- Demonstrates the ability to describe and analyse the subject area using the relevant English academic terminology.

- Demonstrates skills in working with early English texts in their original language.

- Demonstrates an understanding of the historical background for the variation in modern English.

- Demonstrates skills in explaining the syntactic aspects of English sentences and texts.

- Demonstrates skills in describing the observed language phenomena in a systematised manner.

- Demonstrates the ability to communicate in written English in a varied manner to suit the situation in question.

- Demonstrates written language proficiency in relation to the communication of academic material in English.

The exam hand-in dates will be published here: http://studerende.au.dk/en/studies/subject-portals/arts/exams/exam-timetables/. Exam submission deadlines are very strict so make sure to submit on or before the deadline.

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WEEK TOPIC & ASSIGNED READING READING

1 W5

Intro to HEL L: what is HEL about and why do we care? S: Standard and non-standard English

Set reading: Trudgill (1999), BB*

Want more?

Aitchison (1999, chapter 1), BB 2 W6

What kind of language is English? L & S: - genealogical and typological classification of languages - features of Germanic - comparative method and internal reconstruction

Set reading: Aitchison (1999, chapter 2), BB

Millward & Hayes (2018, 19-24 till “Graphics”)

Want more? Manker (2016), BB

Aitchison (1999, chapter 3), BB Millward & Hayes (2018, chapter 4)

3 W7

The beginnings of Old English L: - sociolinguistic situation - OE spelling and phonology S: - OE spelling and phonology vs PDE phonology - using historical databases

Set reading: Millward & Hayes (2018, 33-51)

4 W8

Lexical change & word-formation L & S: - word-formation strategies - types of semantic change

Set reading:

Millward & Hayes (2018, 67-81)

Want more? Fortson (2004), BB

5 W9

OE morphology & its PDE reflexes L: - number, gender, and case S: - understanding the magic sheet - understanding OE basic morphology

Set reading: Millward & Hayes (2018, 51-66)

Magic Sheet, BB

6 W10

Old English syntax

L & S: - V2 / Verb Second - OV - strong and weak adjectives - morphology: strong and weak verbs (AS WE1 due)

Set reading: Fischer et al. (2017, 188-97), BB

Want more?

Fischer et al. (2017, 197-211), BB

7 W11

Middle English & language contact

L & S: - language contact (OE & ME) - ME phonology & morphology

Set reading:

Van Gelderen (2014, chapter 5), BB Crystal (2005, 82-6), BB

Want more?

Millward & Hayes (2018, chapter 6) 8 W12

ME & the north-south divide

L & S: - north-south divide - ME syntax

HEL WE due

Set reading: Van Gelderen

(2014, 125-38 & 140-4), BB

Crystal (2005, 117-120), BB

Want more? Millward & Hayes (2018, 146-50)

W13 Easter break

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*BB = source is made available on Blackboard (BB)

Course book:

We will be using the following course book to a large extent (available at Stakbogladen):

Millward, C.M., and Mary Hayes. 2018. A Biography of the English Language. Custom edition. UK: Wadsworth / Cengage Learning. ISBN: 9781473764880.

A list of other set reading:

The list of the references additional to your course book is provided here:

Aitchison, Jean. 2013. Language Change: Progress or Decay? 4th ed. Cambridge: CUP.

Butters, Ronald. 2001. “American-British grammatical differences.” In English in North America; The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume IV, edited by John Algeo, 325-39. Cambridge: CUP.

Fischer, Olga, Henrik de Smet, and Wim van der Wurff. 2017. A Brief History of English Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.

9 W14

No lecture this week S: revision

Now is a good time to pay off your

reading debts.

10 W15

Early Modern English and the complaint tradition: lexicon & syntax

L & S: - the Inkhorn Controversy & EModE lexicon - prescriptivism & EModE syntax

Set reading: Van Gelderen (2014, 174-83), BB

Crystal (2005, 249-53), BB

Want more? Millward & Hayes (2018, 157-82)

11 W16

Getting closer to PDE: further changes in EModE

L & S: - EModE phonology - EModE morphology

Set reading: Millward & Hayes (2018, 182-206)

12 W17

English comes into its own

L & S: - explaining synchronic regional variation - differences between American and British English (AS WE2 due)

Set reading:

Butters 2001, BB Crystal (2005, 419-34), BB

Want more?

Crystal (2005, chapter 17)

13 W18

Onwards to the 20th and the 21st centuries

L: Changes in Late Modern English S: - exam revision

Want some further reading? Crystal (2005, 414-534)

Millward & Hayes (2018, chapter 9)

Those who are considering taking EL3 would benefit from reading these

in particular.

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Fortson IV, Benjamin W. 2004. “An approach to semantic change.” In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, edited by Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda, 648-66. Berlin: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Manker, Jonathan. 2016. “Morphological typology.” Ling100 – Introduction to Linguistic Science lecture, http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~jtmanker/Morphological%20Typology%20-%20Spring%202016%20-%20Ling%20100%20Guest%20Lecture.pdf (Accessed January 5th, 2018).

Baker, Peter. “The Magic Sheet of Old English Inflections.” Old English Aerobics, http://www.oldenglishaerobics.net/resources/magic_A4.pdf (Accessed January 5th, 2018).

Van Gelderen, Elly. A History of the English Language. Revised edition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Trudgill, Peter. 1999. “Standard English: what is isn’t.” In Standard English: the Widening Debated, edited by Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts, 117-28. London: Routledge.

Electronic sources we will be using: Bosworth, Joseph. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online. Edited by Thomas Northcote Toller

and Others. Compiled by Sean Christ and Ondřej Tichý. Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 21 Mar. 2010. 5 Nov. 2013. http://www.bosworthtoller.com/.

Preparation for the lectures: I will do my best to make the lecture handout available by the end of the preceding Friday. Make sure to print this handout and bring it with you to the lecture. Note however that you are not supposed to have read this handout prior to the lecture. You can find the handout under Materials > Week X: session X on Blackboard (BB). You should also do the assigned reading prior to the lecture; note that you can see what the assigned reading is well in advance for the whole semester from the syllabus.

Preparation for the seminars: Instructions for the seminar activities will appear on Blackboard by the end of the preceding Friday. You can find these in the same place as the lecture slides for the relevant week. You are expected to do the seminar activities beforehand, even if you – for some reason – miss the lecture. You are also expected to bring the handout with the seminar activities and the reading relevant for the week to the seminar.

You are advised to print the handouts. The nature of the materials is such that having printed copies will make your life much easier with HEL.

If you have any questions, do bring these up in the seminars – that’s one of the reasons why the seminars happen.

Lectures and readings introduce and develop concepts, which are then applied in the seminars. For success in the course it is essential that you participate in lectures and seminars and that you prepare the exercises that you are asked to do before class. The

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course builds on the activities of the previous weeks.

Instructor sessions There will be instructor sessions towards the end of the course (weeks 15 & 16 for the HEL component; weeks 17 & 18 for the AS component). More information will follow.

Further reading for the enthusiasts: Feeling enthusiastic about the history of the English language? Would you like to know more?

Aitchison, Jean. 2013. Language Change: Progress or Decay? 4th ed. Cambridge: CUP.

o This book provides a very gentle introduction to the field of language variation and change, using examples from the history of English.

Beal, Joan C. 2004. English in Modern Times: 1700-1945. London: Hodder Education.

o This is a book for you if you want to go into more detail regarding what happened to English between 1700 and 1945. If you wonder, for example, how RP came into existence, and if you would like to read a good review of the age of prescriptivism, you should read this.

Campbell, Lyle. 2004. Historical Linguistics. An Introduction. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh Press.

o This book will be of interest to those of you who like comparative linguistics and linguistic typology.

Crystal, David. 2005. The Stories of English. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

o This is an amazing book. It tells the story of English in a very reader-friendly and absorbing way, and it certainly provides you with a sociocultural background from Old English to Present-Day English.

Hogg, Richard. 2006. An Introduction to Old English. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh University Press.

o If Old English is what makes your heart beat, this is a good next step that goes beyond what we can do within one semester on the whole of the history of the English language. How come that there are so many different classes and subclasses of strong verbs? Read Hogg…

McMahon, April. 2004. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: CUP.

o This is an advanced book for those who want to know more about the theory of language change. A rather yummy one too.

Wright, Joseph, and Elizabeth M. Wright. 1850-1930. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Henry Frowde.

o A very comprehensive (but not very reader friendly) grammar of Old English,

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with a discussion of links with other Indo-European languages.

Wright, Joseph, and Elizabeth M. Wright. 1923-1946. An Elementary Middle English Grammar. Oxford: OUP.

And of course, there is always English Linguistics 3: English in its social contexts, where we discuss factors that lead to language variation (and change).