EH 370-101: History of the English Language
Dr. John Halbrooks
Office: HUMB, Rm. 278
Office Hours: 2:00-3:30 Tuesday/Thursday and by appointment
Email: jvhalbrooks@usouthal.edu
Course Description
Entitling a course “History of the English Language” is much like entitling one “A Course about Everything.” The topic is simply too vast, and so we must necessarily be selective. That said, I would be remiss if we did not at least touch on important concepts and developments in philology, phonology, morphology, lexicography, sociolinguistics, and literary and cultural history. Since I am teaching this course in an English department (as opposed to, say, an anthropology department), I will be taking the rather old-fashioned approach of emphasizing the literary and the philological. This approach will prove most helpful to those majoring in English or English education.
Course Requirements
1. Three tests, including the final exam (20% each).
2. Major lexicographical project (30%). You will create a detailed lexicon for a particular subject that interests you. You will spend much of this semester on this assignment, and you will complete it in stages. First you will choose a subject and write a proposal; then you will draft some sample entries; finally, at the end of the semester, you will submit the entire lexicon. I will be giving you much more detailed information about this assignment soon.
3. Class participation, including a “weekly word” (10%). Each week you will bring to class an interesting entry from the Oxford English Dictionary to discuss.
Required Texts
Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language, fifth edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Winchester, Simon. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.
Attendance Policy and Late Work
You are required to attend all class meetings. If you do not attend a meeting, then you will not be allowed to turn in any work that was due on that date. If you miss more than two meetings, your final grade may suffer. Work submitted late will incur a penalty.
Disabilities
All syllabi at the University are required to include the following statement: “If you have a specific disability that qualifies you for academic accommodations, please notify the professor and provide certification from Disability Services. (OSSS is located in Room 270 of the Student Center; 460-7212).”
Plagiarism
Plagiarism will result in failure of the class after one warning. If you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, please ask me.
Course Schedule through September
August 21st. Introduction to the course.
August 23rd. Reading: Winchester, chapter one (“Taking the Measure of It All”).
August 28th. Reading: Baugh, chapter one (“English Present and Future”). Word of the week.
August 30th. Reading: Baugh, chapter two (“The Indo-European Family of Languages”).
September 4th. Reading: Sounds handout; Winchester, chapter two (“The Construction of the Pigeon-Holes”). Word of the week.
September 6th. Reading: Peter Baker, Introduction to Old English, chapter one (“The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language”); online at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/genintro.html
September 11th. Reading: Baugh, chapter three (only pages 43-59). Word of the week. Vowels handout.
September 13th. Reading: Baugh, chapter three (pages 60-73).
September 18th. Reading: Beowulf, text and translation by Benjamin Slade, lines 1-319; online at http://www.heorot.dk/beo-intro-rede.html; Baugh, chapter four (only pages 74-87). Word of the week.
September 20th. Reading: Winchester, chapter three (“The General Officer Commanding”)
September 25th. Reading: Baugh, chapter four (pages 87-107). Word/week.
September 27th. Test One.
Other Important Dates
October 4th. Lexicography project proposals due.
November 1st: Test Two.
November 8th: Drafts of lexicography entries due.
November 29th: Final projects due.
December 6th, 10:30: Final exam.
