English 370: English Language Study
Revised Syllabus
Week 1T:Introduction, and Business
(April 1-5) Th:Grammar: Descriptive and Prescriptive
READ: Files, 1 (also 15.2)
Week 2T:Defining ‘Language’: Animal Languages
(April 8-12)READ: Files, 2; Crystal, Ch. 1.
Th:‘Seeing Language’: Sign Language, Writing Systems
READ: Files, 13, 15.1
Week 3T:Language Difference: Dialects
(April 15-19)READ: Files, 10. DUE: Word Adoption Papers
Th: Language Contact
READ: Files, 11.
Week 4T/Th:Language Change: The History of EnglishQUIZ Tuesday
(April 22-26)READ: Files, 12.1, 2, 7, and 10.
** Linguistic Autobiography Due (at class, Thurs, 25 April) **
Week 5T/Th:The Sounds of English: 1. Phonetics
(April 29-May 3)READ: Files, 3, 12.3, 4, 5, 11, and 12; Crystal, Ch. 2.
Week 6T/Th:The Sounds of English: 2. Phonology
(May 6-10)READ: Files, 4.QUIZ Thursday
Week 7T/Th: Forming Words: Morphology
(May 13-17)READ: Files, 5, 12.6-7; Crystal, Ch. 3
Week 8T:Words in Order: Syntax
(May 20-24) READ: Files, 6, 12.8.
Th:Meaning: Semantics
READ: Files, 7, 12.9 QUIZ Thursday
Week 9T:Discourse Analysis: Speech Acts, the Structure of Conversation
(May 27-31)READ: Files, 8
Th:The Ebonics Debate
READ: articles on Web
Week 10M: Language Acquisition, Language Education
(June 3-7)READ: Files, 9; Crystal, Chs. 4-5
Th:Summing Up.** Portfolio Due **
** FINAL EXAM: 4:30-6:20 p.m. Wednesday, June 12 **
(Report on History of Adopted Word and Final Supplement Due)
Key Words for a Definition of Language
(see Language Files, pp. 19-21, for fuller definition of many of these)
Arbitrary
Change(able)
Communicate
Convention(al)
Culturally transmitted
Discrete (i.e., composed of differentiable units which can be recombined)
Displacement
Interchangeable (i.e., send and receive messages)
Meaning
Play(ful)
Productive
Sign
Sounds
Spoken
System(atic)
______
______
______
Some Language Internet Sites
(worth visiting to supplement readings/exercises for ENGL 370)
General Sites for Linguistics/Language Resources:
Baragona's History of the English Language & General Linguistics Home Page:
Anne Curzan’s Resource Page:
Linguistics for Beginners:
Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistics
Dictionaries, Data Bases, etc.:
Oxford English Dictionary (OED):
British National Corpus (BNC):
COBUILD:
The Early Modern English Dictionaries Database (EMEDD):
History of the English Language (HEL):
Edwin Duncan’s English Language History Online Resources
Also, see the Home Page for his HEL course:
Dan Mosser’s History of the English Language Home Page:
Phonetics:
George Dillon’s Phonetics Resources Page:
Short paper due at class, Tuesday, 9 April 2002.
Bring to class your one-page response (typed–no more than one sheet of paper, please) to the following:
David Crystal insists that ‘language play’ is an essential part of what humans do with language. Identify some game(s) you play with language and explain what you think
it is that motivates you to play it(them). Considering the issues raised in our readings in Language Files for this week and next, do you think that this ludic aspect of human language is essential? In other words, should we insert the word ‘play’ (or ‘ludic’) somewhere into the definition I proposed at our first class: ‘Language is an arbitrary system of spoken sounds used conventionally to communicate meaning’? What would the definition now look like?
English 370: English Language Study Spring Quarter 2002
Daily 11:30-1:20 Míċeál F. Vaughan Loew 106
Office: A309 Padelford Hall
Office Hours: T 1:30-3:30 &W 10:00-11:00, & by app’t.
Phone: (206) 543-2285
Email:
This course will introduce students to the various methods and approaches we can use to study and understand human language. It is intended to provide a basic foundation for language study and will introduce numerous areas of linguistics, many of which can be studied in more depth in advanced courses at the UW. English 370 is aimed primarily at meeting the needs of English majors, especially those who are considering going on for teaching certification, and so will take a practical approach to the subject, aiming at achieving a secure understanding of basic linguistic terms and techniques, especially as they apply to contemporary American English. The course will be a success if it helps you step back and think about language in new ways, and if it provides you with tools for analyzing and describing detailed features of our language. Developing a facility with those tools should prove useful as you reading, write, think about, and teach works written in English.
To achieve these goals, we will survey some of the systematic ways linguists have of describing diverse features of language and language use. The techniques they use for their analysis of language have been developed by looking carefully at specific aspects of (for example) the sound, structure, style, syntax, history, and social use of the English language. We will, therefore, be considering words and their sounds, their origins and organization, their uses and their change over time, and from place to place. We'll look at and discuss dialects and Standard English; prescriptive and descriptive grammar; the history of English; meaning and style; and some social and political aspects of language use and language policy.
The goal of the class is to enable students to develop some confidence in, and demonstrate some competence with, describing what the English language is and how it works. Assignments will include oral and written classroom exercises, some out-of-class exercises and writing, and a final exam.
Most of the assigned readings for class will be taken from Thomas W. Stewart, Jr., and Nathan Vaillette, eds., Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics,8th ed.(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2001) and David Crystal, Language Play (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), but I will also be providing handouts and Internet URLs for additional reading.
Since this is an introductory course, I will not expect you already to have finely honed tools for linguistic analysis. But, as a quick look at the syllabus and at Language Files will reveal, we will be dealing with a lot of different topics and for most of you this will be the first time you have done any serious work with linguistics. So you should expect to have to spend considerable time reading and re-reading the course materials (and doing exercises and quizzes) in order to become familiar with the main issues, and become comfortable with using the various tools that are necessary for practical linguistic analysis and description.
Requirements
Becoming familiar with analytic terminology and gaining a practical facility with the use of descriptive techniques are our first concern. Since much of this can only be achieved by hands-on work and from the give-and-take of classroom discussion, I’ll expect you to be in class, prepared to discuss the day’s topics in detail. (If health, or other, difficulties prevent your attending, I’d appreciate your letting me know, ahead of time if possible.) Your active participation in class will require your initiative, but I also do call on individuals to answer questions I, or others, raise for discussion/response.
Your grade for the course will be based on your performance in these categories (the percentages are approximate):
1)Attendance, participation in class discussions, and completion of in-class
exercises and quizzes. (35%)
2)Homework assignments (10%)
3)Linguistic autobiography (5-6 pp.): due at class, 25 April.
Final Supplement to this (2-3 pp.): due at final exam. (25% combined)
4)Final Exam: this will be a comprehensive one, covering material from the entire course, and including questions related to your adopted word (in addition to your report on your study of your adopted word [2 pp.]: due at final exam). (30%)
As you’ll see, there are distinct sorts of written work required for the course: exercises, quizzes, homework, short essays, final exam. (I will provide more specific instructions on specific items as the course progresses). I will read and comment on these as they are submitted, and return them to you. While I will place rough ‘grades’ on the homework and in-class exercises (i.e., plus, check, minus) and letter grades on quizzes and linguistic autobiography, I will not assign a final grade for these assignments until I have the opportunity to see the entire portfolio at the end of the quarter. The portfolio is due at the last class (Thurs, 6 June) of the course.
The median grade in my upper-division courses tend to be very close to the norm for classes at that level in the Humanities at UW: i.e., 3.1-3.3. That is the median grade, not the lowest. I don’t, for example, give a 3.0 to students simply because they submit assignments or participate in class discussion. Grades represent my evaluation of the quality of those performances.
Preliminary Syllabus
Week 1T:Introduction, and Business
(April 1-5) Th:Grammar: Descriptive and Prescriptive
READ: Files, 1 (also 15.2)
Week 2T:Defining ‘Language’: Animal Languages
(April 8-12)READ: Files, 2; Crystal, Ch. 1.
Th:‘Seeing Language’: Sign Language, Writing Systems
READ: Files, 13, 15.1
Week 3T:Language Difference: Dialects
(April 15-19)READ: Files, 10. DUE: Word Adoption Papers
Th: Language Contact
READ: Files, 11.
Week 4T/Th:Language Change: The History of English
(April 22-26)READ: Files, 12.1, 2, 7, and 10.
** Linguistic Autobiography Due (at class, Thurs, 25 April) **
Week 5T/Th:The Sounds of English: 1. Phonetics
(April 29-May 3)READ: Files, 3, 12.3, 4, 5, 11, and 12; Crystal, Ch. 2.
Week 6T/Th:The Sounds of English: 2. Phonology
(May 6-10)READ: Files, 4.
Week 7T/Th: Forming Words: Morphology
(May 13-17)READ: Files, 5, 12.6-7; Crystal, Ch. 3
Week 8T:Words in Order: Syntax
(May 20-24) READ: Files, 6, 12.8.
Th:Meaning: Semantics
READ: Files, 7, 12.9
Week 9T:Discourse Analysis: Speech Acts, the Structure of Conversation
(May 27-31)READ: Files, 8
Th:The Ebonics Debate
READ: articles on Web
Week 10M: Language Acquisition, Language Education
(June 3-7)READ: Files, 9; Crystal, Chs. 4-5
Th:Summing Up.** Portfolio Due **
** FINAL EXAM: 4:30-6:20 p.m. Wednesday, June 12 **
(Report on History of Adopted Word and Final Supplement Due)
Linguistic Data Sheet (English 370)
Name: ______Major: ______
Place of Birth: ______Year at UW: ______
Father’s Place of Birth: ______
Mother’s Place of Birth:______
Places You Have Lived: ______
(indicate ages)
______
______
______
What are you aware of being conscious influences on your speech, language use–such as modifications in pronunciation or usage suggested by teachers, or others?
What other languages do you speak/understand (indicate length and type of study/exposure)?
Have you taken any courses in linguistics before: e.g., phonetics, grammar of English, History of the English Language?
Have your taken other courses (in, say, Anthropology or Sociology) that have bearing on linguistic or language issues