History of English II

Aims

Aims

To give you an understanding of the development of the English language from the Old English period to the present day within a framework of ideas about the causation and progress of linguistic change.

This module will be capped at 45.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Students must have successfully completed:

• L09C Introduction to phonetics and phonology (LAN00009C)
• L11C Introduction to syntax (LAN00011C)
• E02C History of English I (LAN00002C)

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

Two lecture hours per week, and (depending on student numbers) up to one seminar hour per week.

Teaching programme

The module covers:

• First half of term: the general sociolinguistic history of English from the earliest periods, including discussion of the impact of contact and processes of standardization.
• Second half of term: the analysis of the historical development of a few historically central, specific areas of phonology, morphology and syntax.

You will be required to read and analyse materials from earlier English for presentation and discussion in seminars

Teaching materials

Reference will particularly be made to the following books:

• Barber, Charles (1993) The English Language: A Historical Introduction (Cambridge: CUP)
• Baugh, A.C. and T. Cable (4th edition 1993) A History of the English Language (London: Routledge)
• Crystal, David (2004) The Stories of English (Penguin)
• Mugglestone, Lynda (2006) The Oxford History of English (Oxford: OUP)

Assessment and feedback

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on formative work

In the second half of term students will write an exam answer from the preceding year’s paper in a seminar session, and will assess another student’s answer. Aspects of the criteria and of essay writing will be discussed. Essays will also be marked and commented on by the course convenor, and returned individually to students a week after being handed in.

Summative assessment and feedback

• Two hour closed examination
  Writing three essays: each carries one third of the marks.

Students will be given written comments on each of their essays, and a mark for each, in week 6 of the term in which the exam was taken.