~ Linguistics 1100, S24, Course information and syllabus

Linguistics 1100, S24, The history of words

Course information and syllabus

Time:     T R 1:45-3:14
Classroom:     Fisher-Bennett 141
Instructor:     Beatrice Santorini
Office hours:     For the moment: by appointment
Office location:     3401-C Walnut Street, Room 334C (directions)

Assignments with their due dates are posted on the Canvas site for the class.

Date Topic Reading Class materials
The contents of this column are stable. Starting with the second week, please read the readings by the Tuesday of the week they appear with. As the course progresses, this column will be updated with handouts and reference material for group work and assignments.
R 1/18 Preliminaries.
Getting to know you.
The notion of linguistic descent.

T 1/23
R 1/25
Before Old English.
English within the Indo-European family tree.
Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 4

Further reading (optional):
Hoad 2012

T 1/30
R 2/1
Old English.
West Germanic meets North Germanic (or Saxon meets Viking).
Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 5

Further reading (optional):
Crystal 2004, interlude 1
Crystal 2004, interlude 3

T 2/6
R 2/8
Middle English.
1066! English meets Norman French.
Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 6

Further reading (optional):
Crystal 2004, ch. 6
Townend 2012

William Caxton's egg story ("For we Englysshe men ben borne ...")
Scandinavian loanwords by century.
Betting on Scandinavian origin.
Hybrid vocabulary domains: Titles of nobility, kinship terms, number words.
Doublets from Norman vs. (later) standard French.
Doublets from other sources.
A list of misles (a related topic: mondegreens).
Solution to Long Assignment 3
T 2/13
R 2/15
Early Modern English.
The Great Vowel Shift. The modern vocabulary explosion.
Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 7
Video on Northern Cities Vowel Shift featuring William Labov.
Inland Northern American English.
Vowel shifts in contemporary American English.
Sources of English vocabulary by century.
Double-dipping from Romance gives rise to triplets.
Linguistic mongrels: automobile (cf. Greek aftokinito),
-able (teachable, ...),
-ful (beautiful, bountiful, doleful, ...),
un- (unparalleled, ...)
T 2/20
R 2/22
Modern English.
English around the world.
Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 9 New York Times dialect quiz.
British-Irish dialect quiz.
Rhoticity in English.
Dictionary of American Regional English (on the Franklin homepage, search directly for "Dictionary of American Regional English", and then click the link "Connect to full text" (ignore any other links).
T 2/27
R 2/29
Ghosts of Indo-European.
Regular vs. irregular nouns and verbs.
Pinker 1999, ch. 3 The fricative voicing alternation in English noun plurals (see also Google Books N-gram viewer)
Additional Ringe notes: Strong vs. weak verbs.
Suppletion.
  Spring break
T 3/12 Pronouns.
Them vs. 'em. Thou, you, y'all (yins, youse). Gender-neutrality: singular they, you guys, dude.
Baron 1981
Crystal 2004, interlude 12
Crystal 2004, interlude 17
Pronoun wishlist and forecast.
R 3/14 Progress report on final paper topic.
For reference: Past paper topics.
T 3/19
R 3/21
Semantic change. Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 10 Notes on semantic change.
Food terms in web menu design
T 3/26
R 3/28
Make new words. Sources of new vocabulary from within the language. Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 11 Notes on new words.
Misles.
Word formation strategies in present-day English.
Dubious doublets.
Negativa tantum.
New meanings for place names.
Obsolete words.
T 4/2
R 4/4
Take new words. Sources of new vocabulary from outside the language. Algeo and Butcher 2014, ch. 12
T 4/9
R 4/11
Loaded words.
The concept of taboo. Functions of swearing: abusive, cathartic, dysphemistic, emphatic, idiomatic. The euphemism treadmill.
Pinker 2007, ch. 7
T 4/16
R 4/18
Slang.
Functions of slang. Slang vs. swearing: How are they similar, and how are they different?
Eble 2004
T 4/23 Buffer class.
R 4/25
T 4/30
Presentations of draft versions of final project.
Su 5/12 Final paper due. Guidelines concerning style and references.