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English
7160X: History of
the English Language Tanya
Pollard |
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3153 Boylan Tuesday 4:30-6:10 E-mail:
Tpollard@brooklyn.cuny.edu
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Office:
3108 Boylan Phone: 718-951-5000 x 6216 Hours:
T 12:15-1 & 3:30-4:15, Th 10:30-11, and by
appointment |
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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 |
8-30 |
Introduction |
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2 |
9-6 |
Origins: Crystal 15-33, 57-85; Bryson, 46-53; Bragg, 6-7
(Blackboard); texts at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/OE/OE.HTM (1) |
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3 |
9-13 |
Middle English: Crystal 105-107, 121-139, 145-162, 222-253;
Bryson, 53-63 Bragg, 32-39 (Blackboard); texts at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/Middle/MIDDLE.HTM
(2) |
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4 |
9-20 |
Renaissance: Crystal 254-333, 339-341; Bragg, 109-120
(Blackboard) texts at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/EMod/EMODERN.HTM (3) |
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5 |
9-27 |
Standardization: Crystal 365-414; Bryson 147-160; http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?page_id=8 (4) |
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6 |
10-4 |
No class |
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7 |
10-11 |
No class |
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10-14 |
Friday class: Review |
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8 |
10-18 |
Exam |
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9 |
10-25 |
America and elsewhere: Crystal 419-452; Bryson 161-178; https://archive.org/details/americandictiona01websrich (1) |
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10 |
11-1 |
English expands: Crystal 453-479; Bragg, 236-260 (Blackboard);
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/frontmatter/frontmatter.html & http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v12/chapter11.html (2) |
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11 |
11-8 |
Fusion Englishes, Future
Englishes: Crystal 502-509, 514-534; Abley, 54-100 (Blackboard); Bryson 179-195, 239-245; Chotiner, “Globish for Beginners,” http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/ 2010/05/31/100531crbo_books_chotiner?currentPage=all;
Learn English online; The Internet and language Change;
How the internet is changing language; Oh Twitter, what will become of our language?; Experts divided over internet changes to language (3 & 4)
** proposal for final
project, including bibliography |
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12 |
11-15 |
Exam |
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13 |
11-22 |
Research presentations and responses (1 & 2) |
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14 |
11-29 |
Research presentations and responses (3 & 4) |
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15 |
12-6 |
Research paper due; peer-editing workshop |
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16 |
12-13 |
Revised research paper due |
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Course Requirements and
Expectations: |
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Attendance Because your contributions
to class discussion are a central part of your work for this course,
attendance is crucial. If you miss
more than two classes, your overall grade will drop; at four absences, you
will fail the class. Class will begin promptly at 4:30; arriving after that
point will count as one-third of an absence. |
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Texts I have ordered two texts
for this course: David Crystal, The Stories of English, and Bill
Bryson, Mother Tongue. Both are
available at the college bookstore.; you may purchase them elsewhere if you
prefer, or borrow them from a library.
Excerpts from other texts will be provided electronically. You are required to bring hard copies of
texts with you to class; failure to do so will result in lowering of grade.
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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, and you will be required
to present ideas for class discussion on a rotating basis. 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 while
others are speaking, and ringing from cell-phones, pagers, watches, etc. |
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Writing Over the course of the
semester you will write two short (2 pp) papers accompanying in-class
presentations, as well as a research proposal (2 pp), a peer-edit critique (2
pp), and a research paper (12-15 pp); other assignments will include regular
quizzes and two in-class exams. All written work should have a central claim
that is well argued, clearly written, and directly supported by close
readings of textual passages; the research paper will also incorporate, and
respond to, at least five secondary sources.
All papers should be stapled, typed, double-spaced, in a 12-point
font, with one-inch margins on all sides.
Written work is due at the start of class, and lateness will result in
lowering of the grade by one-third of a grade per day. Any use of others’ ideas must be fully
acknowledged in footnotes; 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: Brief weekly quizzes Short (2 page) essays, 5%
each Presentations and
participation Midterm exam Final exam Final research project (5%
proposal, 5% draft, 15% final) |
15% 10% 20% 15% 15% 25% |
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Selected Recommended
Additional Readings (some excerpts
available on Blackboard):
Mark Abley,
The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English (Houghton
Mifflin, 2008)
Melvyn Bragg, The
Adventure of English (Arcade, 2003)
David Crystal ed., The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge, 1995); more at
http://www.davidcrystal.com/David_Crystal/english.htm
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)
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, ed, A Companion to the History of the English Language (Blackwell,
2008)
Lynda Mugglestone, The Oxford History of English (Oxford, 2012)