The English Language: Past and Present
Prof. S. Kemmer

Provisional Syllabus

With Corresponding Optional Readings from Denning and Leben

Week 1
Oct 9
Introduction; the breadth and diversity of English. (Ch. 1)
Week 2
Oct 16
The beginnings of English. In-class video. (Ch. 2)
Week 3
Oct 23
The English vocabulary: Layers of borrowings. Word structure and word analysis.
(Ch. 3-4)
Week 4
Oct 30
Phonetics and assimilation (Ch. 5). Polysemy and Semantic Change (Ch. 7)
Week 5
Nov 6
The linguistic relatives of English. The Indo-European language family. Earlier antecedents. (Ch. 10)
Week 6
Nov 13
Usage and variation. Slang. (Ch. 8) Sources of new words. Language attitudes.


© 2001 Suzanne Kemmer

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