In addition to the assigned readings specified in the schedule, students are responsible for reading the Course Content Links, from the bordered grid of links on the Course Links page as these links become activated on the web. (I will also gradually enter these links on this page.) These links are also organized into the sequential Topic Modules on Canvas. Follow along with the modules on Canvas. The material there is undated but will correspond to class progress and also to this schedule (once updated after hurricane).

The 4 exams - Study Test 1, Midterm 1, Study Test 2, and Midterm 2, will cover readings, the two DVD episodes (one viewed in class, the other on library reserve) class lectures and discussions, the web materials in the Course Content Links and this page, and any materials distributed in class. Additional links in the modules are provided as aids to understanding; or because they will viewed in class. The short vocabulary quizzes are based on the sets of "Word Elements" in the textbook (which I sometimes refer to as "Morpheme Sets"), and listed at the end of most of the chapters.

Any illness or other disaster that keeps a student from taking an exam or quiz during the assigned time must be reported to me (kemmer AT rice.edu) before the exam is due (if you can't notify me, then ask your parent or college master to do so). There are no make-up exams for non-emergency situations.

There is an opportunity for extra credit (5%): create a short (3-5 min) video on some topic relating to course topics.

Day	Date	Topic	Readings from textbook and other materials; Assignments
M	Aug 20	Class meeting cancelled - Instructor illnes. Introduction. What do we know about English? (Or think we know?) What kind of a language is English? What language(s) are most closely related to English? Some basic concepts. What are "related languages"; "sister languages"; ancestor/descendent languages; Germanic languages; Anglo-Saxon/Old English?	No reading. Preview Questions about Words in English; Lord's Prayer through time
W	Aug 23	Breadth and diversity of English. English around the world. Basic concepts: synonyms; native vs. borrowed words; nativization. basic historical relations ("genetic relationships") of English to other languages: Germanic languages, Romance languages, Celtic, Slavic languages and others; cognates	Chapter 1; Questions about Words in English; From public website: read sections on English as a World Language; Varieties and Dialects.
F	Aug 25	English and its relatives.	Chapter 2 p. 19-28 (to middle of page).
M	Aug 27
W	Aug 29
F	Aug 31
M	Sept 3	Labor Day holiday, no class.	Continue exploring links from first course module.
W	Sept 5	Anglo-Saxon period. Angles, Saxons and Jutes.	Chronology of the English Language to 10th century. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Maps: Visual aids on History of England and English Chronology of the English Language to 1066.
F	Sept 7	The Anglo-Saxon Period. The first period of Viking invasion. DVD: The Adventure of English, Part 1.	Chapter 2 to Middle English Period. Chronology of the English Language to 1066. Lord's Prayer through time. Chronology of the English Language to 1500. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
M	Sept 10	The Norman Conquest and its consequences. DVD: The Adventure of English Part 2.	A Brief History of the English Language (introductory paragraphs); Chronology of English to 1500.
W	Sept 12	Vikings and Normans, cont.	Chronology of English cont.
F	Sept 14	Early Modern English.	The King James Bible. William Shakespeare. Extra: Explore the Luminarium to see texts in various periods.
M	Sept 17	Begin morphology. Basic concepts: Word elements or morphs: minimal units of word formation; inflection vs. derivation. Exploration of word elements as building blocks. Roots and affixes, prefixes and suffixes. Some affixes of English. Noun-forming, verb-forming, and adjective-forming suffixes. The nature of meaning: the flexibility of form-meaning relations.	Ch. 3 pp. 41-48 to section end top of p. 48. Morphemes and Roots and affixes, Some derivational affixes of English.
W	Sept 19	Morphs and meaning. Word analysis (= Word parsing, or just parsing). Differences between Latin/Greek vs. English/other Germanic word structure. Compounding in the two types of languages. Latin and Greek as inflectional languages. Derivation vs. inflection. How we make words. Word formation in English: Word structure and word analysis. Complexity of Greek/Latin (Classical) words and their parsing. The derivational suffixes of English, native and borrowed.	Definitions. Read rest of Chapter 3; but discussion will continue on concepts from pp. 41-48 and material from pp. 48-51.
F	Sept 21	Special word formation processes. Exploration of texts for word information.	Ch. 3 51-68 cont. Types of Word Formation. Definitions. Ch. 3 p. 51-68. Review Terms 1 for Study Test 1 and Midterm 1.
M	Sept 24	Special word formation processes, cont. and other aspects of morphology.	Study Test #1 (on course materials from topics in Chapters 1-3, not 4) open on Canvas after class (latest 7pm) Review Terms 1
W	Sept 26	Allomorphs: variant forms of morphemes. Allomorphy in the English morphological system; allomorphy in Latinate vocabulary. Sound contexts affect the sounds speakers produce.	Ch. 4. Study Test #1 (on material from topics in Chapters 1-3, not 4) due 11:55pm
F	Sept 28	Allomorphs, cont. Parsing: word analysis. Making complete parses of Latinate vocabulary, for understanding word structure.	Ch. 4. Parsing: Method and examples.
M	Oct 2	More on parsing; more on phonologically motivated allomorphy. Parsing vs. etymology.	Ch. 4.
W	Oct 4	Phonetics: the system behind our sounds. Basic concepts: Consonants and vowels: what are they? The sounds of English I. Consonants. Sounds vs. spelling. Mismatches.	end Ch. 4; Ch. 5. Definitions; Sound terminology
F	Oct 6	The English sound system, cont. More on consonants. Vowels. Diphthongs.	Ch. 5. Preview Ch. 6 and review Sound terminology and parsing of these sound terms.
M	Oct 9	Midterm Break, no class.	Study guide for Review 2: Study Guide for Midterm 1
W	Oct 11	More types of phonological processes (deletion etc.). Number Greek and Latin numerals. Borrowing pattern-- Especially in compounds: where whole words were borrowed, Latin typically goes with Latin, Greek with Greek. Latin vs. Greek loanwords: how do we tell?	Ch. 6. Continue reviewing Study Guide. Midterm 1 starts.
F	Oct 13	Meaning change. Paths of meaning change and radial categories. Polysemy and semantic change. Finite words, infinite concepts.	Ch. 7. Semantic change: Types of developments. Midterm 1 due Saturday 11:55pm.
M	Oct 16	Two frequent types of change: Metaphor and metonymy as types of change AND cognitive processes. Spatial metaphor in Classical prefixes (e.g. hyper-, hypo-, super-, sub- and others).	Ch. 7. Semantic change
W	Oct 18	Other types of change. Meaning change and social and technological change.	Technological change and Meaning Change.
F	Oct 20	Etymology. Word stories: the historical trajectory of words through time.	Word Stories: What types of change can you identify in these examples?
M	Oct 23	False etymologies and folk etymology. Reading and creating dictionary etymologies. Authoritative etymologies. Parsing vs. etymology revisited.	Etymonline: The online etymology dictionary. Look at some sample etymologies and citations (quotations) in the Oxford English Dictionary Online. (If you are off campus, there will be an extra step to get to the OED: you will have to log into the Rice network.) Read General Info about the OED. Preview Overview of the OED Online. Also: review Parsing, section on Parsing vs. Etymology.
W	Oct 25	Dictionaries and Lexicography. History of dictionaries; kinds of dictionaries. Dictionaries as tools, not as mystical authorities. Relation of dictionaries to usage by speakers and writers. Spoken vs. written language. Association of dictionaries with written language and authority. Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster.	Begin Review for Study Test 2.
F	Oct 27	Noah Webster and the American Language. James Murray and the New English Dictionary, which became the Oxford English Dictionary. Using the OED.	OED online. History of dictionaries and the OED. About the Oxford English Dictionary. Look at some sample entries on OED online. Study test 2 activated. Due Sunday.
M	Oct 30	Classical morphology in English words. Nouns, number gender and case; adjectives. What happens when the words become English.	Ch. 9; Classical morphology: nouns and verbs: The part on nouns.
W	Nov 1	The verb system in Latin. "Stem vowels" as linkers. What happens to Latin verbs when they become English verbs; and what happens in derivational processes. Participles and other weird forms. Spellings and pronunciations.	Ch. 9 and Classical morphology: nouns and verbs: The part on verbs. Amusing but true history: The Latin Language.
F	Nov 3	Other aspects of Classical morphology. Participles.	Classical morphology: nouns and verbs: Participles.
M	Nov 6	The Linguistic Relatives of English. Sir William Jones and the discovery of the Indo-European language family.	Ch. 10 pp. 189-196. Sir William Jones quotation; Genetic relations of languages. Indo-European family tree
W	Nov 8	Comparison of cognates. Recurrent sound correspondences. Reconstruction of vocabulary of a proto-language. Grimm's law (first part).	Ch. 10 Indo-European cognates: family words
F	Nov 10	Features of Proto-Indo-European; changes leading to Latin and Greek. Associating Latin and Greek morphemes with each other; and to English and other Germanic cognates.	Ch. 10
M	Nov 13	The Indo-Europeans: Who were they? What did they do?	Ch. 10 pp. 196-200. Wikipedia article on the Proto-Indo-Europeans (Sections 1-2.1). Optional famous article: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans by Calvert Watkins. The section on Language and Culture (and its subsections) and the Conclusion are especially recommended.
W	Nov 15	More on language classification: Language families of the world.	Language world map.
F	Nov 17	Usage and variation. Review/re-introduction of a basic concept: Linguistic varieties. Types and styles of language defined by groups and contexts. Slang and jargon. Characteristics of slang. Special lexical varieties: Cockney rhyming slang, others. (Wikipedia page on Cockney Rhyming Slang is useful.) Lexical innovations. Slang as an important source of neologisms.	Ch. 8
M	Nov 20	More on slang, jargon.	Ch. 8; review English as a World Language; Varieties and Dialects. Rice Neologisms Database activated.
W	Nov 22	More on shibboleths: Language as a group-defining tool. Language and power. Institutions that enforce and maintain standardization. Traditional broadcast media; traditional publishing; education.	Ch. 8; The Story of the Shibboleth.
F	Nov 24	Thanksgiving holiday, no class.	No reading.
M	Nov 27	Language peeves. Prescriptivism as a weapon. (For Word Journal: Be sure to read/review the part of Chapter 3 on word formation processes (derivation, compounding, clipping, blending, acronyms, etc. so you can check the classifications of the words you submit. Also review Word formation processes and types. ) Internet language.
W	Nov 29	Two more word formation types: malapropisms, malaphors, and 'eggcorns' [optional links].	Malapropism a Completed Word Journal due. Neologisms and the information you collected on them must be entered into database and your MS Word file uploaded to Assignments. Passages on slang and jargon on Usage page of public website.
F	Dec 1	Video clips: 'English Dialects': Kid of 24 accents Voice Recognition Elevator; The Dialect Coach; Extra credit videos/presentations.	Student videos will be uploaded to Canvas. Recap on Course Expectations will be useful to see whether you have accomplished the course objectives. Midterm topics and terminology: see Review page for Midterm 2.
S-T	Dec 2-5	Study days, formerly known as Dead Week.	Zombies.
W-W	Dec 6-13	Final Exam Week.	No final exam in the class. Take care of yourself! Don't overdo the all-nighters, caffeine consumption, or sugar consumption.
day	date
day	date	Omitted chapter: Other changes. Changes in older loanwords from French (ca 1100-1450); derivational relations with Latin loanwords.	Ch. 11.

© Suzanne Kemmer
Modified 9 Sept 2017; 20 Sept 2017; 20 October 2017; 25 October 2017