MODULE DESCRIPTOR
Definitive Document
Module Code
LCSH52
Version
3
Module Title
Language Change & the History of English
Credits
20
Valid From
01/09/15 – 31/08/18
Status
Existing
Subject Board
LCS
Academic level
6
Study period
Semester A
Prerequisites and co-requisites
None
Associated programmes English Language & Linguistics, English & Creative Writing,
Linguistics and English Language
Not available to students taking/having taken
N/A
Content (Indicative)
- diachronic variation: aspects of language change from Indo-European to modern English;
- reconstructing cultural content; dialects, and aspects of morphology, syntax and lexis in
Old, Middle, and Early Modern English; origins of Standard English;
- phonological and phonetic phenomena in the period c.450 AD to the twenty-first
century; 'laws' of sound changes;
- the nature of language change and possible explanations;
- the spread of English across the world;
- recent developments in English morphology, syntax and/or lexis
- How creative and literary texts represent and inform us of varieties of historical English.
Teaching and Learning Experience
Module Leader: Steve DISNEY
Modes of delivery: Seminars, Student Presentations, Tutorials, Workshops
Module Learning Outcomes (MLOs)
1.
be able to demonstrate knowledge of language families, particularly Indo-
2.
3.
4.
European and apply models of language change;
be able to identify some of the main phonological changes affecting the
Germanic languages, particularly English, and suggest reasons for the
changes;
be able to describe and/or compare aspects of the phonology, syntax and/or
lexis of Old, Middle, Early Modern and Modern English;
be able to demonstrate knowledge of certain national varieties of English
and their history.
Assessment
Assessment task
writing assignment (Portfolio)
writing assignment (Essay)
Load (eg
wordage)
Weighting (as
a percentage)
2500
2500
50%
50%
Learning
outcomes
assessed
3
1,2,3,4
Indicative reading
Baugh, A.C. and T. Cable (2002) A History of the English Language. Fifth Edition. London,
U.K.: Routledge
Bybee, J., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W. (1994) The evolution of grammar: tense, aspect and
modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Campbell, A. (1983) Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Crystal, D. (2005) The Stories of English. London: Penguin
Crystal, David Crystal, Hilary (2013) Wordsmiths and Warriors The English-language Tourist's
Guide to Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Culpeper, Jonathan 2005 History of English. Taylor & Francis
Durkin, Philip (2014) Borrowed words: a history of loanwords in English. UK, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Horobin, Simon and Jeremy Smith (2002) An introduction to Middle English. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
Joseph, Brian D. Janda, Richard D. (2006) The Handbook of historical linguistics. Oxford :
Blackwell.
Pyles, T. & Algeo, J. (2010) The Origins and Development of the English Language; 6th
edition. UK: Wadsworth Publishing
Tallerman, Maggie and Gibson, Kathleen R. (editors) (2013) The Oxford handbook of
language evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Journals
Chaucer Review
Journal of English Linguistics
Studies in Language
English Literary History
Modern Philology
Linguistic Discovery (open source)
Websites
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/
http://www.etymonline.com/
http://wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/index.html
http://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/
http://www.verbix.com/languages/oldenglish.shtml