Words in English
Linguistics/English 215
Prof. S. Kemmer

DATES ARE FROM 1998. Current site is www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/info05.html

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, and 'handouts'.

Week 1 8/31-9/4	Introduction; the breadth and diversity of English. The beginnings of English. (read Ch. 1)
Week 2 9/7-11	(Labor Day Holiday 9/7, no class.) The beginnings of English, cont. (read Ch. 2; video; Quiz Morpheme Set 1)
Week 3 9/14-18	Layers of borrowings. Overview: The English Vocabulary. (Quiz Set 2)
Week 4 9/21-25	Word structure and word analysis. English word formation processes. (read Ch. 3; Quiz Set 3)
Week 5 9/28-10/2	Midterm #1 Monday, 9/28 Allomorphs: the variant forms of morphemes. (read Ch. 4, Quiz Set 4)
Week 6 10/5-9	Some basic phonetics; assimilation. (read Ch. 5 & Ch. 6 to p. 75)
Week 7 10/12-16	More allomorphy. Numerals and number words. (read Ch. 6 p. 75-90, Quiz Set 5)
Week 8 10/19-23	(Midterm break 10/19-20, no class.) Polysemy and semantic change (read Ch. 7)
Week 9 10/26-30	Semantic change cont. Classical borrowings in selected semantic fields. (Ch. 7 cont.)
Week 10 11/2-6	Latin and Greek inflectional and derivational morphology in English. (read Ch. 9; Quiz Set 6) Midterm #2 Wednesday Nov. 4
Week 11 11/9-13	Classical morphology cont.; Latin and Greek phrases and abbreviations. (read Ch. 11; Quiz Set 8)
Week 12 11/16-20	The linguistic relatives of English. The Indo-European language family. (Ch. 10; Quiz Set 7)
Week 13 11/23-27	(Thanksgiving recess 11/26-27, no class.) Usage and variation. Slang. (read Ch. 8)
Week 14 11/30-12/4	Slang cont. Sources of new words. (Review Ch. 3, p.35-44; Quiz Set 9) New Word Journal due Friday, December 4.
Week 15 12/7-9	New words, cont. Conclusion. (Comprehensive Quiz Sets 1-9. Optional. You can use it to replace your lowest score.)