History of the English Language 3301-L2HELW
The lectures give students the opportunity to understand the nature of linguistic changes and the process of shaping English against the background of historical, cultural and social events. They shed light on the structure of contemporary English, its exceptions and irregularities discussing the latter in the light of general linguistic processes.
Topics:
1. Proto-Indo-European language family (origins, language families, comparative method, family tree model, cognate forms);
2. Proto-Germanic (Germanic language family – East Germanic, North Germanic, West Germanic; Grimm’s Law);
3. Early invasions (Roman Invasion, Germanic Invasion);
4. Anglo-Saxons (selected early sources on early English history; heptarchy, Christianization, early borrowings);
5. Old English language and culture (king Alfred the Great and his reform; alliteration; selected manuscripts and literary works; Viking invasions; the times and works of Ælfric and Wulfstan);
6. The Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings (social, linguistic and cultural changes in post-Conquest England; Peterborough Chronicles; the Bayeux Tapestry);
7. Middle English dialectal diversity (East-Midland, West Midland, Northern, Kentish, Southern; selected morpho-phonological changes; West Midland Alliterative Revival; Chancery English);
8. ME phonological processes (Homorganic Lengthening, Trisyllabic Shortening, CC-Shortening; Open Syllable Lengthening);
9. The language of Geoffrey Chaucer’s works;
10. Introduction of the printing press (William Caxton; incunabula; editors and their texts);
11. The Great Vowel Shift (evidence and interpretation);
12. The language of William Shakespeare’s works;
13. Optionally: Modern English (selected regional varieties).
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
A student is able to place in time the most important events connected with the evolution of English. S/he can perform a linguistic analysis of texts representing different stages of the history of that language on the phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic levels. S/he can identify variants of English in the worldrepresented by written texts or spoken language
Knowledge
K_W06 The graduate has familiarity with historical development of the English language and its variability in diferent areas of language description at an advanced level
Abilities: the graduate is able to
K_U06 Recognize and describe at an advanced level phenomena related to the development and variation of the English language
Social competence: the graduate is ready to
K_K01 Critically appraise the knowledge and content obtained from various sources
Assessment criteria
Education at language level B2+
Obligatory course for the first-level (BA) students.
Grading: final exam based on the material discussed in lectures and in practical classes; a retake exam during the retake exam session.
Practical placement
Non-applicable
Bibliography
Selected chapters/sections from the literature recommended during lectures
Bough, A. C. and T. Cable. 2002 (6th ed.) A History of the English Language. Routledge.
Fisiak, Jacek. 1993. An Outline History of English. Volume I: External History. Poznań.
Hogg, Richard. 2002. An Introduction to Old English. OUP.
Hogg, Richard. 2002. An Introduction to Middle English. Edinburgh University Press.
Pyles, Th. and J. Algeo. 2010 (6th ed.) The Origins and Development of the English Language. Wadsworth. (Chapter 6, ‘The Middle English Period’)
Reszkiewicz, A. 1998. [1971]. Synchronic Essentials of Old English. West Saxon. PWN.
Wełna, J. 1996. A Brief Outline of the History of English. Warszawa: WUW.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: