Words in English
Linguistics/English 215
Fall 2003
Prof. S. Kemmer
Provisional Syllabus
Fall 2003
With Assigned Readings from Denning and Leben,
Quiz and Exam Dates
In addition to assigned readings specified below, students are responsible for reading class 'handouts' as they become activated on the web. Exams will cover readings, class discussions, web 'handouts' and any other materials distributed in class.
| Week 1 8/27-8/29 | Introduction; the breadth and diversity of English. Kinds of words; spoken vs. written language (read Ch. 1) |
| Week 2 9/2-9/4 | Kinds of English. The beginnings of English (read Ch. 2) (Thursday, Quiz, Morpheme Set 1; and video) |
| Week 3 9/9-9/11 | The beginnings of English cont. (Finish reading Ch. 2) (Continuation of video) Layers of borrowings. Overview: The English Vocabulary. |
| Week 4 9/16-/9/18 | Word structure and word analysis. English word formation processes. (Tuesday, Quiz Set 2) (read Ch. 3) |
| Week 5 9/23-9/25 | Word analysis and word formation processes cont. Parsing (Thursday, Quiz Set 3) |
| Week 6 9/30-10/2 | Tuesday Midterm #1 Thursday: no class; Assignment: email us 5 new words with definitions (kemmer@rice.edu , acfadely@rice.edu) (read Ch. 4) |
| Week 7 10/7-10/9 | Allomorphs: the variant forms of morphemes
Some basic phonetics; assimilation. (Tuesday, Quiz Set 4) ( read Ch. 5 & Ch. 6 to p. 75) |
| Week 8 10/14-10/16 | (Fall break 10/13-14, no class
10/14.) More allomorphy. Numerals and number words. (read Ch. 6
p. 75-90) (Thursday Quiz Set 5) |
| Week 9 10/21-23 | Polysemy and semantic change (read Ch. 7) (Thursday Quiz Set 6) |
| Week 10 10/28-10/30 | Latin and Greek inflectional and derivational morphology in English. (read Ch. 9; Thursday Quiz Set 7) |
| Week 11 11/4-11/6 | Classical morphology cont.; Latin and Greek phrases and abbreviations (read Ch. 11; Thursday Midterm #2) |
| Week 12 11/11-11/13 | The linguistic
relatives of English. The Indo-European language family. (Ch. 10;
Thursday Quiz Set 8) Assignment: email us 5 more new words, this time all of them neologisms, with citations (source and context) and draft writeups for Word Journal. |
| Week 13 11/18-20 | Usage and variation. Slang. (read Ch. 8) [NOTE: SELF-SCHEDULE YOUR FINAL EXAMINATION FOR THIS COURSE BY WEDNESDAY NOV. 19] |
| Week 14 11/25-11/27 | (Thanksgiving recess 11/27-28, no class 11/27) Slang cont. Sources of new words. (Review Ch. 3, p.35-44; Quiz Set 9) |
| Week 15 12/2-12/4 | New words cont.: Creativity and conventionalization. Conclusion. (Thursday: Comprehensive Quiz, Sets 1-9. ) New Word Journal due Thursday, December 6. |
| Finals 12/6-12/17 | Self-scheduled final examination. |
© 2003 Suzanne Kemmer