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

In addition to assigned readings specified below, students are responsible for reading the Course Content Links (from the black-bordered grid of links on the Course Information page as these links become activated on the web. Exams will cover readings, DVDs, class discussions, the web materials in the Course Content Links, and any materials distributed in class. Quizzes are based on numbered Morpheme Sets, which may or may not correspond which chapters studied in a given week.

Week 1 8/23-8/25	Introduction; the breadth and diversity of English. (read Ch. 1)
Week 2 8/30-9/1	Kinds of words. Spoken vs. written English. Kinds of English. The beginnings of English (read Ch. 2) (Thursday, start video)
Week 3 9/6-9/8	The beginnings of English cont. (Finish reading Ch. 2) (Continuation of video) Layers of borrowings. Overview: The English Vocabulary. (Tuesday 9/7, Morpheme Quiz Set 1 1:00 p.m. on WebCT)
Week 4 9/13-/9/15	Word structure and word analysis. English word formation processes. (Quiz Set 2 on WebCT due Thursday 1:00 p.m.) (read Ch. 3)
Week 5 9/20-9/22	Word analysis and word formation processes cont. Parsing. (Chapter 3 cont.) (Quiz Set 3 on WebCT due Thursday 1:00 p.m. for all students, incl. Tulane.)
Week 6 9/27-9/29	By Tuesday midnight, assignment: email us 5 new words with definitions (send to both kemmerATriceDOTedu, meckel AT rice DOT edu). Word analysis and parsing cont. Makeup deadline for Tulane students, Quizzes 1 and 2: 9/27 1:00 p.m. Midterm review in class Thursday. Midterm activated on WebCT Thursday evening 9/29; due Tuesday 10/4 by 1:00 p.m. Closed book/notes/other sources (no surfing the internet). Covers class material, text through Chapter 3, web stuff, DVDs disk 1 & 3.
Week 7 10/4-10/6	Allomorphs: the variant forms of morphemes. Some basic phonetics; assimilation. (Quiz Set 4 activated Thursday 10/6) ( read Chs. 4 & 5)
Week 8 10/11-10/13	(Fall break 10/10-11, no class 10/11.) Regular and irregular allomorphy. If time: Numerals and number words. (refresh Chapters 4 and 5; read Ch. 6) (Quiz Set 4 due Thursday 10/13 1:00 p.m. Quiz Set 5 activated Thursday evening)
Week 9 10/18-10/20	Phonetics: consonants and vowels. The Big Picture. (Finish chapters 4-6.) (Quiz Set 5 due Tuesday 10/18 1:00 p.m. Quiz Set 6 activated Thursday)
Week 10 10/25-10/27	Etymology. Polysemy and semantic change (read Ch. 7) (Quiz Set 6 due Tuesday 10/25 1:00 p.m. Quiz Set 7 activated Thursday.)
Week 11 11/1-11/3	Latin and Greek inflectional and derivational morphology in English. (read Ch. 9) Latin and Greek phrases and abbreviations (read Ch. 11) Partial-class midterm review Thursday. (Quiz Set 7 due Tuesday 11/1 1:00 p.m. ) Midterm #2 activated Saturday Nov. 5, covers chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11.
Week 12 11/8-11/10	The linguistic relatives of English. The Indo-European language family. (read Ch. 10) Midterm #2 due Saturday 11/12 at 5:00 p.m. (Quiz 8 activated Thursday)
Week 13 11/15-11/17	Usage and variation. Slang. (read Ch. 8; Quiz Set 8 due Tuesday 11/15 1:00 p.m. Quiz Set 9 activated Thursday 7 p.m.)
Week 14 11/22-11/24	(Thanksgiving recess 11/24-27, no class Thursday 11/24) Sources of new words. Creativity and conventionalization. Conclusion. (Review Ch. 3, pp. 35-44; Quiz Set 9 due Tuesday 11/22 1:00 p.m. Quiz Set 10 (comprehensive) activated Wednesday 11/23) Assignment due Tuesday 11/22 by noon: Submit 5 more new words, this time all of them neologisms, with all information in draft writeups for Word Journal. These should be a different 5 than you submitted last time. Submit them via WebCT Assignments link as a Word file, and also submit them to the class Word Journal Database
Week 15 11/29-12/1	Review and Evaluations. New Word Journal due Thursday 12/1 5:00 p.m. (Quiz Set 10 due Thursday 12/1 11:00 p.m.)
Finals 12/6-12/14	On-line final examination.