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2023/2024

History of the English Language II

Code: 100192 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500245 English Studies OB 3 2

Contact

Name:
Elisabet Pladevall Ballester
Email:
elisabet.pladevall@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

NO TAUGHT CLASSES WILL BE OFFERED FOR THIS SUBJECT IN THE 23-24 ACADEMIC YEAR. STUDENTS ARE ADVISED TO ATTEND THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES IN THE NEW CURRICULUM AND TO CONSULT THE DEGREE COORDINATOR.

This course draws heavily on the 1st- and 2nd-year courses in synchronic linguistics as well as on the History of English I course taught in the previous term.

The course requires an initial level of English between C1 (Advanced) and C2 (Proficiency) (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment). Students with C1 can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning; they can express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions; they can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes; they can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. With C2 students can understand almost everything they read or hear without effort; they can summarise information from different oral and written sources, reconstruct facts and arguments and present them in a coherent way; they can express themselves spontaneously, with fluency and precision, distinguishing subtle nuances of meaning even in the most complex situations.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of the course in relation to the degree is:

  • to apply and develop the concepts acquired in History of English I
  • to provide more detailed knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of English in its main varieties
  • to introduce new tools for diachronic linguistic analysis
  • to provide linguistic training to help students access the language of authors from different periods
  • to prepare students for elective 4th-year subjects such as Variation and Change, Socio-linguistics or Philological Analysis, as well as subjects in the field of early English literature

Upon completing the course, students will be able:

  • to recognize and analyse linguistic features which differ from contemporary English
  • to understand and describe the emergence of important linguistic innovations in English
  • to analyse and describe the phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic characteristics of every stage of the English language
  • to understand and describe how linguistic features are maintained or change over time within a perspective of functional systems and subsystems of the language.

Competences

  • Demonstrate a comprehension of the relationship between factors, processes and phenomena of linguistics, literature, history and culture, and explaining it.
  • Demonstrate a general comprehension of the historical evolution of the English language.
  • Demonstrate they know a wide variety of texts in English language of any mean (oral, written, audiovisual) and recognising implicit meanings.
  • Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing and describing the linguistic characteristics of extracts of representative documents from different periods and geographical areas.
  2. Applying the terminology and basic concepts of the diachronic study of the language.
  3. Appropriately interpreting and using the information contained in reference books in terms of (English) historical linguistics, specially in the etymological dictionaries, and in the studies based on the main current historical corpus.
  4. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  5. Describing and relating the interconnections between external factors and the internal evolution of the English language.
  6. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  7. Finding and presenting information about historical and sociolinguistic facts that affect the functional and formal evolution of the English language.
  8. Interpreting characteristic extracts from different historical periods of documents and texts in English.
  9. Issue appropriate critical assessments based on the comprehension of relevant information about social, scientific or ethical issues related to linguistics.
  10. Recognising and explaining the grammatical, phonological, orthographic and lexical characteristics of the various historical stages of the English language.

Content

UNIT 1. Middle English

  • External history
  • Phonology
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Lexicon: borrowing, word formation, semantic shift and lexical loss
  • Text analysis

UNIT 2. Modern English

  • External history
  • Phonology
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Lexicon: borrowing; new word-formation processes
  • Text analysis

 


Methodology

Autonomous:

Personal study and work on exercises and assignments

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Practice 15 0.6 1, 2, 5, 8, 3, 10, 7
Theory 35 1.4 1, 2, 5, 10, 7
Type: Supervised      
Exams and assignments 25 1 1, 2, 5, 8, 3, 10, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Study and reading 50 2 1, 2, 5, 8, 3, 10, 7

Assessment

Assessment:

  • All exams are obligatory.
  • The dates are specified in the course program posted on Moodle. Any changes will be duly announced.
  • Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 45% of the assessment items.
  • The level of English will be taken into account in the correction of written work and in the final evaluation.
  • In case of absence on a date of assessment (for example due to illness), students must provide a justification to gain the right to re-assessment.
  • In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
  • Irregularities refer, for instance, to copying in an exam, copying from sources without indiacting authorship, or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as original that has been generated by an AI tool or programme. These evaluation activities will not be re-assessed.
  • Partial or total PLAGIARISM will immediately result in a FAIL (0) for the plagiarised exercise and if plagiarism is repeated it will result in a FAIL of the whole subject . Plagiarism consists of copying text from unacknowledged sources –whether this is part of a sentence or a whole text– with the intention of passing it off as the student’s own production. It includes cutting and pasting from internet sources, presented unmodified in the student’s own text. Plagiarism is a serious offence. Students must respect authors’ intellectual property, always identifying the sources they may use; they must also be responsible for the originality and authenticity of their own texts.

Review:

  • On carrying out each assessment activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

Re-assessment:

  • Reassessment will consist of an exam and will only be possible for those students who have obtained an average mark 3.5 and 4.9.
  • The maximum grade obtainable on a re-assessment exam is 5.

 

Single assessment:

Item 1: Exam (45%)

Item 2: Exam (45%)

Item 3: Tutorial session with teacher (10%)

 

The same re-assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.

 


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exam 1: Middle English 45% 7.5 0.3 1, 2, 4, 8, 3, 10
Examen 2: Modern English 45% 7.5 0.3 1, 2, 4, 8, 3, 10
Tutorials 10% 10 0.4 2, 5, 9, 6, 4, 7

Bibliography

  • Algeo, John (2010) The Origins and development of the English Language. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-1-4282-3148-1
  • Barber, Charles (1976) Early Modern English. London: Deutsch.
  • Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas (1993) A history of the English language. London: Routledge.
  • Freeborn, Dennis (1992) From Old English to Standard English. London: Macmillan.
  • Hoad, T. F. (1986) The Oxford Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: OUP.
  • Strang, Barbara (1970) A History of English, London: Methuen.
  • Various authors / various years, The Cambridge History of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.

 


Software

Not applicable.