The idea of the course is to give students insight into the fundamental
principles and methods of historical linguistics, in particular the principles
and patterns of language change and grammar change, by learning Old English and
observing changes that occurred between Old English and Present-Day English.
All languages change over time, sometimes radically, even catastrophically,
sometimes so gradually that speakers of the language are unaware that change is
taking place at all. These processes of change can be observed and investigated
in a variety of ways. We will be learning about how change may take place by
studying (i.e. acquiring a working knowledge of) the Old English language and
comparing it with Modern English.
This includes a reasonable grasp of Old English lexis, morpho-syntax (phonology
will be dealt with in a separate class), so as to enable students to read,
translate and appreciate the structure of Old English texts, and the essentially
oral nature of Old English discourse. Some attention will also be paid to the
historical and cultural background of the Old English period that helped shape
the language.
The course will enable the students to gain an understanding of why today's
English is the way it is. It will also help students to read Old English
literature with more insight since the student will become aware of the
linguistic particularities of English in that historical period.
Course day by day
| Reading, preparation of discussion questions/assignments | |
| 1 |
|
| 2 |
|
| 3 |
|
| 4 |
|
| 5 |
|
| 6 |
|
| 7 |
|
Study material
Course syllabus and glossary available on Moodle
Baker, P. S (2012). Introduction to Old English, 3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell. Available for purchase online or in bookshops.
Barber et al. (2009) The English Language. A historical introduction.pdf available on Moodle
The course offers a linguistic introduction to Old English with particular emphasis on the phonological differences between the older language and Modern English. It is designed for students unfamiliar with the sound structure, prosody, and metrical tradition of Old English. The goal is to achieve a level of analytical competence in the older language which would allow informed judgments about pronunciation, then and now, and the phonological and metrical properties of Old English verse.
Class time (after the first meeting) will be split evenly between description of the various phonological and metrical features of Old English (my job) and discussion and analysis of the phonological and metrical structure of Old English poems (your job). The last session will be dedicated to individual presentations – your 10 minutes in the sun – discussing any aspect of Old English sound structure or Anglo-Saxon verse: its structure, diction, longevity, the metrical fidelity of modern translations.
Course day by day
| Reading, preparation of discussion questions/assignments | |
| 1 |
Introduction to basic phonological concepts: phonemes and allophones, types of phonological change. |
| 2 | The sound-spelling correspondences in Old English: inheritance, innovation, unsolved problems regarding the vowel system. |
| 3 | The sound-spelling correspondences in Old English: inheritance, innovation, unsolved problems regarding the consonant system. |
| 4 | The prosodic system of Old English. Beyond orthography: how to stress words and influence meter? |
| 5 | The story of Cædmon (Baker). |
| 6 | The Beowulf epic: problems and possible solutions. |
| 7 | More practice in Old English phonological analysis and scansion. |
Study material
Baker, Peter. Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. (Same as the text for OE Syntax; any edition. Beware: Kindle ed. elicits negative comments from users.
Barber et al. (2009) The English Language. A historical introduction.pdf available on Moodle
Minkova, D. (2014) An Online Companion to A
Historical Phonology of English. EUP/OUP.
http://www.euppublishing.com/userimages/ContentEditor/1384874552253/Historical
Phonology of English - online companion.pdf
This course examines variation and change in the grammar of Old and Middle English. In this course, we will explore a number of key topics in Old and Middle English historical grammar, including variation and change in the syntax of verbs, verb complementation and word order.
We will discuss the theoretical approaches and some of the explanations that have been offered in the literature of historical grammar (see, for instance, Meurman-Solin et al. 2012; Tamás & Westergaard 2014). The course will also provide an opportunity to gain some practical experience of using electronic corpora and analyzing data of historical grammar (see, for instance, Markus et al. 2012; Taavitsainen et al. 2014).
Topics:
Learning outcomes and competences:
Course day by day
| Reading, preparation of discussion questions/assignments | |
| 1 |
Theoretical tools for a Diachronic Grammar: How to examine Variation and Change |
| 2 | Historical Linguistic Corpora I |
| 3 | Historical Linguistic Corpora II |
| 4 | Variation in Argument Structure of Old and Middle English |
| 5 | Variation in Word Order of Old and Middle English |
| 6 | Variation in Old and Middle English and theoretical implications |
| 7 | Variation in Old and Middle English: the role of L1 and L2/language contact and language attrition |
Study material
Beal, J.C., K. Corrigan & H. Moisl (eds.). 2007. Models and Methods in the Handling of Unconventional Digital Corpora. Vol. 2: Diachronic Corpora. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fuss, E. & C. Trips. 2002. Variation and change in Old and Middle English. On the validity of the Double Base Hypothesis. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 4.3, 171-224.
Leistyna, P. & C.F. Meyer (eds.) 2003. Corpus Analysis: Language Structure and Language Use (Language and Computers 46). Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.
Markus, M., Y. Iyeiri, R. Heuberger & E. Chamson (eds.). 2012. Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics. A Multi-dimensional Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Meurman-Solin, A., M.J. Lopez-Couso & B. Los, B (eds.) 2012. Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reppen, R., S.M. Fitzmaurice & D. Biber (eds.) 2002. Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic Variation (Studies in Corpus Linguistics 9). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Taavitsainen, I., M. Kytö, C. Claridge & J. Smith (eds.). 2014. Developments in English. Expanding Electronic Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tamás, E. & M. Westergaard. 2014. Word order variation in late Middle English. The effect of information structure and audience design. In K. Bech & K.G. Eide (eds.), Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages, 203-232. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
The course offers an introduction to the ideas, principles, aims and methods of historical sociolinguistics, with a focus on Old and Middle English. It is designed for students unfamiliar with sociolinguistics and the individual language periods. The goal is to achieve some basic competence in the analysis of language variation from a sociolinguistic point of view (broadly construed), an awareness of the major phenomena of Old and Middle English that warrant closer sociolinguistic study, and some recognition of the chances and limits of sociolinguistic investigations of distant language periods.
Class time (after the first meeting) will be split between traditional lectures that introduce student to key concepts and open discussion and analysis of individual phenomena or problems. The last session will be dedicated to Q & A and individual presentations – your 10 minutes in the sun (as Donka so charmingly puts it) – discussing particular problems, authors, texts, etc. from a sociolinguistics point of view.
Course day by day
| Reading, preparation of discussion questions/assignments | |
| 1 |
What is sociolinguistics? What is historical sociolinguistics? |
| 2 | Correlative sociolinguistics: Of social classes, men and women… |
| 3 | Correlative sociolinguistics, reprise: Of Social Networks and Communities of Practice |
| 4 | Qualitative Sociolinguistics: All the shit you can learn about dirty language! |
| 5 | Sociology of language: Why don’t we speak Anglo-Saxon anymore? |
| 6 | Q & A – your presentations |
Study material
Bergs, Alexander. 2005. Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics: Studies in Morphosyntactic Variation in the Paston Letters (1421-1503). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. (Topics in English Linguistics, TiEL 51)
Bergs, Alexander. 2012. “Middle English Sociolinguistics”. In: Alexander Bergs & Laurel Brinton (eds.) Handbook of the Historical Linguistics of English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 534-551.
Bergs, Alexander. 2013. “Writing, reading, language change - a sociohistorical perspective on scribes, readers, and networks in medieval Britain”. In: Esther-Miriam Wagner, Ben Outhwait, Bettina Beinhoff (eds.). Scribes as Agents of Language Change. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 241-260.
Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel & Juan Camilo Conde-Sivestre (eds.) 2012. Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid, Terttu Nevalainen, and Luisella Caon (eds.) (2000). Social Network Analysis and the History of English, special issue of European Journal of English Studies, 4.3, Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Summer School Elearning platform: https://elearning-v3.it.auth.gr/course/index.php?categoryid=176
Certificate of attendance will be awarded to all participants plus certification of the 6 ECTS gained.
|
|
© School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki |