Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- OT-ANG17-390.B3
- Title
- Elective Specialisation: Varieties of English and the History of English
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- The primary objective of the course is to introduce students to the history of English.
- Course content
- The primary objective of the course is to introduce students to the history of English through those aspects of formal analysis that will be on help in deciding which language is (not) related to which. After acquiring this knowledge and building on these aspects the course envisages to develop those competences that can later be put to use in analysing any language, and to aid students in deciding for themselves on a formal basis what kind and degree of relationship exists among languages with the help of the following theoretical means: sound changes, establishing sound correspondences (on the basis of place of articulation, manner of articulation, laryngeal features), types of relationships (genealogical, areal, typological), tendencies in sound changes (lenition, fortition), etc. One of the competences to develop is the understanding of what linguistic assertions can (not) be made by a historical linguist, the discerning of what counts as a popular (as opposed to a strictly linguistic) remark on a language. Another objective of the course is to guide students towards an attitude that will help them approach linguistic reality with a degree of openness that will help them overcome the limits of their previous knowledge.
- Assessment method
- The course will end in a 100 point multiple choice exam at the end of the semester.
- Bibliography
- John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (based on Thomas Pyles) (6th Edition), Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2010.
- Recommended bibliography
- John Algeo, Carmen Butcher, Workbook: Problems for Algeo/Butcher's The Origins and Development of the English Language, 2013 Ishtla Singh, The History of English (A Student's Guide), London: Hodder Education, 2005 Haruko Momma, Michael Matto (eds.), A Companion to the History of the English Language, Wiley-Blackwell International David Crystal, A Little Book of Language, Sydney: UNSWP, 2010