Syllabus
PROGRAMME:
Week 1
Introduction.
Text: Nevalainen, Terttu, “Historical Sociolinguistics and Language Change” (in: van Kemenade – Los, pp. 1-26)
Week 2
Text: Corrie, Marilyn, “Middle English – Dialects and Diversity” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 86-120)
Week 3
Text: Townend, Matthew, “Contacts and Conflicts: Latin, Norse and French” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 61-86)
Week 4
Text: Smith, Jeremy J., “From Middle to Early Modern English” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 120-147)
Week 5
Text: Blank, Paula, “The Babel of Renaissance English” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 212-240)
Week 6
Text: Nevalainen, Terttu – Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid, “Standardisation in the History of English” (in: Hogg – Denison; pp. 271-311)
Week 7
Text: Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid, “English at the Onset of the Normative Tradition” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 240-274)
Week 8
Text: Mugglestone, Lynda, “English in the Nineteenth Century” (in: Mugglestone, pp. 274-304)
Week 9
Text: Upton, Clive: „Modern Regional English in the British Isles“ (in: Mugglestone, pp. 305-333)
Week 10
Text: Bailey, Richard W.: „English Among the Languages“ (in: Mugglestone, pp. 334-359)
Week 11
Text: McArthur, Tom: „English World-wide in the Twentieth Century“ (in: Mugglestone, pp. 360-393)
Week 12
Text: Trudgill, Peter: “Standard English: What It Isnʼt” (in: Bex & Watts, pp. 117-128)
Concluding discussion.
Annotation
The two-semester course is designed as an expansion on the B.A. level lecture and seminar on the history of English (History of English I).
Presentations of relevant linguistic essays, text analyses and exercises related to a variety of topics in English historical word-formation, syntax, lexical history and sociolinguistics will help the student develop a deeper understanding of the major historical forces shaping the development of English. Prerequisite:
History of the English Language I, II working knowledge of Czech, Old and Middle English
N.B. Courses in "English Historical Linguistics A" and "English Historical Linguistics B" work in conjunction, focusing on structural and sociolinguistic aspects of language change, respectively, but neither is to be considered a prerequisite for the other one.