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 and other links on Canvas in the relevant modules. (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.

The 4 exams - Study Test 1, Midterm 1, Study Test 2, and Midterm 2, will cover readings, the first DVD episode and part of the second DVD episode, both viewed in class, class lectures and discussions, the web materials in the Course Content Links module, and any materials distributed 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 26	Introduction. What do we know about English? (Or think we know?) How many words are there in English? What kind of a language is English? What language(s) are most closely related to English?	No reading. Preview Questions about Words in English; Lord's Prayer through time
W	Aug 28	Breadth and diversity of English. English around the world. 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 30	Genetic relations cont. Basic concepts: synonyms; native vs. borrowed words (loanwords); nativization. Anglo-Saxon period. Angles, Saxons and Jutes.	Chapter 2 p. 19-28 (to middle of page). Start looking at Chronology of the English Language and other links in second module.
M	Sept 2	Labor Day Holiday, no class	Start preparing for Quiz 1 on Vocab Set 1. Continue reading Chapter 2. Continue exploring links from course module.
W	Sept 4	The Adventure of English, Part 1.	Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Maps: Visual aids on History of England and English Chronology of the English Language to 1066. Vocab Quiz 1 opens. Lord's Prayer through time.
F	Sept 6	History of English cont. The Anglo-Saxon Period. The first period of Viking invasion.	Vocab Quiz 1 due before class. Chronology of the English Language A Brief History of the English Language (introductory paragraphs). DVD: The Adventure of English Part I, Cont.
M	Sept 9	Norse influence. The eventful year of 1066. The Norman Conquest. Norman French influence. Middle English Period.	Chronology of the English Language through 1500. DVD: The Adventure of English Part II, first part of DVD.
W	Sept 11	Middle English, cont. Early Modern English. King James Bible and Shakespeare.	The King James Bible. William Shakespeare. Extra: Explore the Luminarium to see texts in various periods. Vocab Quiz 2 opens.
F	Sept 13	Early Modern English: Colonialism. Modern science and its effects on English. Periods of loanwords in English.	Loanwords in the history of English. Vocab Quiz 2 due 1pm.
M	Sept 16	Review: Native vs. Borrowed and layers of vocabulary. Morphology. Basic concepts: Word elements or morphs: minimal units of word formation; inflection vs. derivation.	Ch. 3 pp. 41-48 to section end top of p. 48. Morphemes and Roots and affixes
W	Sept 18	Practice quiz for Study Test 1 on breadth of English, history of English, sources of loanwords. Exploration of word elements as building blocks. Roots and affixes, prefixes and suffixes. Morphs and meaning. Morphs as prompts for meaning. The nature of meaning: the flexibility of form-meaning relations. Differences between Latin/Greek vs. English/other Germanic word structure. Compounding in the two types of languages. Latin and Greek as inflectional languages.	Terms and Definitions. Read rest of Chapter 3, focus up to p. 55. Vocab Quiz 3 opens.
F	Sept 20	Class cancelled due to Tropical Storm Imelda.	Quiz 3 due.
M	Sept 23	How we make words. Word formation in English: Word structure and word analysis. Word analysis (Word parsing, or just parsing). Complexity of Greek/Latin (Classical) words and their parsing. Synonymy, homonymy/homophony of morphemes.	Ch. 3 51-68 cont. Terms and Definitions.
W	Sept 25	Derivational affixes of English. Noun-forming, verb-forming, and adjective-forming suffixes. Differences between native and borrowed derivational affixes.	Some derivational affixes of English. Review Terms 1 for Study Test 1. Vocab Quiz 4 opens.
F	Sept 27	Special word formation processes and other aspects of morphology. Parsing vs. etymology.	Types of Word Formation. Vocab Quiz 4 closes. Study Test 1 opens.
M	Sept 30	Discussion: Study Test 1. Allomorphs: the variant forms of morphemes. Allomorphy in the English morphological system; allomorphy in Latinate vocabulary. Sound contexts affect the sounds speakers produce. Assimilation.	Study Test 1 due before class.
W	Oct 2	Allomorphs, cont. Making complete parses of Latinate vocabulary, for understanding word structure. More on assimilation and other processes creating allomorphy. Exercise in class on prefixes - discovering allomorphs.	Ch. 4
F	Oct 4	Allomorphs, cont. Parsing: word analysis, cont.	Ch. 4 cont., transitioning to Ch. 5. Parsing: Method and examples.
M	Oct 7	More on parsing; more on phonologically motivated allomorphy.	Ch. 5
W	Oct 9	Phonetics: the system behind our sounds. Basic concepts: Consonants and vowels: what are they? The sounds of English I. Consonants. Sounds vs. spelling. Mismatches.	Ch. 5 and starting Ch. 6 Terms and Definitions; Sound terminology
F	Oct 11	The English sound system, cont. More on consonants. Vowels. Diphthongs.	Ch. 5 and 6. Review Sound terminology and parsing of these sound terms.
M	Oct 14	Midterm Break, no class.	Study guide for Review 2: Study Guide for Midterm 1
W	Oct 16	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.
F	Oct 18	Allomorphy "rules" (patterns) End chapters 4-6. Review for Midterm 1.	Review study guide. Midterm 1 opens, after class.
M	Oct 21	Meaning change. Paths of meaning change and radial categories. Polysemy and semantic change. Finite words, infinite concepts. Spatial metaphor in Classical prefixes (e.g. hyper-, hypo-, super-, sub- and others).	Ch. 7. Semantic change: Types of developments. Semantic change Midterm 1 closes, before class.
W	Oct 23	Two frequent types of change: Metaphor and metonymy as types of change AND cognitive processes. Other types of change. Meaning change and social and technological change.	Technological change and Meaning Change.
F	Oct 25	Etymology. Word stories: the historical trajectory of words through time.	Word Stories: What types of change can you identify in these examples?
M	Oct 28	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 30	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.
F	Nov 1	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.
M	Nov 4	Student neologisms. 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 6	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. Begin Review for Study Test 2.
F	Nov 8	Other aspects of Classical morphology. Participles.	Classical morphology: nouns and verbs: Participles.
M	Nov 11	Finish: Classical morphology in English. Puzzles and problems. 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 13	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 15	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. Study test 2 activated. Due Monday before class.
M	Nov 18	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 20	More on language classification: Language families of the world.	Language world map.
F	Nov 22	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 25	More on slang, jargon.	Ch. 8; review English as a World Language; Varieties and Dialects. Rice Neologisms Database activated.
W	Nov 27	No class preceding T'giving.
F	Nov 29	Thanksgiving holiday, no class.	No reading.
M	Dec 2	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. 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	Dec 4	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 6	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 7-10	Study days, formerly known as Dead Week.	Zombies.
W-W	Dec 11-18	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	Omitted chapter: Other changes. Changes in older loanwords from French (ca 1100-1450); derivational relations with Latin loanwords.	Ch. 11.

© Suzanne Kemmer
Modified 4 Nov 2019