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English
7160X: History of
the English Language Tanya
Pollard |
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3113 Boylan Tuesday 6:30-8:10 E-mail:
Tpollard@brooklyn.cuny.edu
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Office:
3108 Boylan Phone: 718-951-5000 x 6216 Hours:
T 5:30-6:30 & by appt |
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The English language,
like the United States, and like Brooklyn in particular, is a crazy quilt of
countless languages and cultures. This
course will explore the development of English from its earliest forms to the
present day, with an emphasis on the cultural encounters that have kept it in
a constant state of mobility and expansion.
We will examine the language’s Anglo-Saxon beginnings and its early
evolution in response to encounters with French, Latin, and Greek; explore
some of the far-flung shores where England’s colonial and imperial ventures
brought the language, and see what they brought it in return. We will consider the distinctive status of
American English, the question of when and how neologisms and slang terms
become official components of the language, and the status of English as a
global phenomenon, alongside the phenomenon of mixed linguistic forms such as
Spanglish, Franglais, Danglish, Singlish, Hinglish, Tanglish, and
Globish. Students’ experiences with,
and perspectives on, alternate forms of English will be welcomed into
discussions. |
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Wk |
Date |
Assignment |
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1 |
1-29 |
Introduction |
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2 |
2-5 |
Origins: Crystal 15-33, 57-85; Bryson, 46-53; Bragg, 6-7; http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/OE/OE.HTM |
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3 |
2-12 |
No class |
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4 |
2-19 |
Middle English: Crystal 105-107, 121-139, 145-162, 222-253;
Bryson, 53-63 Bragg, 32-39; http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/Middle/MIDDLE.HTM |
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5 |
2-26 |
Renaissance: Crystal 254-333, 339-341; Bragg, 109-120; http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/EMod/EMODERN.HTM |
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6 |
3-5 |
Standardization: Crystal 365-414; Bryson 147-160; http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?page_id=8 |
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7 |
3-12 |
Review |
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8 |
3-19 |
Exam |
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9 |
3-26 |
America and elsewhere: Crystal 419-452; Bryson 161-178; https://archive.org/details/americandictiona01websrich |
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10 |
4-2 |
English expands: Crystal 453-479; Bragg, 236-260; http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/frontmatter/frontmatter.html & http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v12/chapter11.html
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11 |
4-9 |
Fusion Englishes, Future Englishes: Crystal 502-509, 514-534;
Abley, 54-100; Bryson 179-195, 239-245; Globish For Beginners; Social media and English; Texting and English; paper proposal due
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12 |
4-16 |
Exam |
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13 |
4-23 |
No class |
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14 |
4-30 |
Research presentations and outlining workshop |
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15 |
5-7 |
Research presentations and drafting workshop |
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16 |
5-14 |
Research paper due; peer-editing workshop |
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17 |
5-21 |
Revised research paper due |
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Course Requirements and
Expectations: |
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Attendance Because contributions to
class discussion are a central part of the work for this course, attendance
is crucial. Missing more than two classes will lower your overall grade; four
absences will mean failing. Arriving after 6:30 will count as one-third of an
absence. |
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Texts All readings for this class
will be available in Blackboard. |
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Participation Learning is a collaborative
process, which works best when each of you engages fully with the texts and
with each other. To this end, I will
expect you to participate actively in class discussions; your contributions
will determine a significant portion of the semester’s grade. In order to
build a classroom atmosphere of courtesy and concentration, please avoid
behavior that is disrespectful and interferes with others’ learning,
including rudeness, talking, texting, or emailing, and ringing from
cell-phones, pagers, watches, etc. |
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Writing Over the course of the
semester you will post 4 short reading-responses on Blackboard (2 by March 5th,
and 2 more by April 9th), as well as a research proposal, a peer-critique,
and a 12-15p research paper; there will also be 2 exams. Reading responses
should be posted before the class at which the reading is discussed. Any use
of others’ ideas must be fully acknowledged; speak to me if you are unsure
about what this means. Plagiarism is a serious offense, and will result in
failing the class and being reported to the Dean’s Office. |
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Coursework and grading: Reading responses and
participation Midterm exam Final exam Final research project (5%
proposal, 10% draft, 25% final) |
20% 20% 20% 40% |
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Selected Recommended
Readings`
*Mark Abley, The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from
the Future of English (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)
*Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English
(Arcade, 2003)
*Bill Bryson, The
Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way (Harper Collins, 1990)
David Crystal ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
the English Language (Cambridge, 1995)
*David Crystal, The
Stories of English (Overlook, 2004)
Philip Durkin, The
Oxford Guide to Etymology (Oxford, 2009)
Dennis Freeborn, From Old English to Standard
English: A Coursebook in Language Variation Across Time (Ottawa, 1998)
Henry Hitchings, The
Language Wars: A History of Proper English (FSG, 2011)
Geoffrey Hughes, A
History of English Words (Blackwell, 2000)
Seth Lerer, Inventing English: A Portable History
of the Language (Columbia, 2007)
Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English
Language (Oxford, 1992).
Robert McCrum, Globish:
How the English Language Became the World’s Language (Norton, 2010)
Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil, The
Story of English (Faber & Faber, 1986)
Celia Millward, A Biography of the English Language
(Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1996)
Haruko Momma and Michael Matto, eds, A Companion to the History of the English
Language (Blackwell, 2008)
Lynda Mugglestone, The Oxford History of English (Oxford, 2012)