LNG 201/Introduction to the English Language – Spring 2019

LNG 201
1 course unit
Term: Spring 2019
Time: 3:30-4:50 p.m. TF
Room: Bliss Annex 228
Prerequisites: None		 Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss Hall 128 (inside Bliss Hall 129)
Office Phone: 771-2106
E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOK:

George Yule, The Study of Language, 6th ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2017), ISBN 9781316606759.

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  The official catalogue description of the course is available in PAWS.

Adding to that official description, I can almost guarantee that this course will be one of the most difficult but also one of the best classes that you will ever take.  As a user of language, you already know a great deal about English intuitively, and you take that intuitive knowledge for granted.  But in this course, we’re going to take that knowledge and make you more conscious and deliberate about it.  We’re going to learn about the nuts and bolts of how languages work and change.  When you finish the course, you will have a better understanding of why English is the way that it is (usually because of historical accident or a universal linguistic rule or both), and you will have a store of conversation starters and fun facts to know and tell about your mother tongue.  You’ll also have a greater understanding and appreciation of language that you can take into your literature and education classes.  Most of the material we will cover in this class is inherently interesting.  Who doesn’t want to know the answers to such questions as

    1. Why do people talk funny to babies?
    2. How do people come up with alternate lyrics to songs that they hear on the radio (e.g., “Might as well face it, you’re a dick with a glove”)?
    3. How do two people know when their conversation is over?
    4. Why is English spelling so screwy?

But you will have to work hard to master a large amount of new material in order to be able to answer these questions.  In this course, you will be introduced to a lot of information that will be entirely new to you.  You will need to memorize, digest, and assimilate a great deal as the term goes along.  But I will help you in every way that I can, and your classmates will be there with you the whole time.  We’re in this together.

When the College went through a curriculum revision several years ago, the vast majority of undergraduate courses were “transformed” from 3-credit to 4-credit (1-unit) learning experiences.  While most of the classes continued to meet for only 3 academic hours per week (typically 150 minutes on the TCNJ schedule grid), it was understood that the “transformed” courses offered a depth of learning with additional learning tasks unfolding in the equivalent of a fourth hour, including, sometimes, an actual additional hour of class interaction.  As the equivalent of the fourth hour in this course,

F) The students are assigned additional learning tasks that make the semester’s learning experience more deeply engaged and rigorous, and no other additional classroom space is needed.

GOALS.  In terms of my goals for this course, I want you to

    1. to develop your appreciation – and respect – for the complexity and beauty of the English language;
    2. to become more conscious of what you are actually doing when you use language;
    3. to demonstrate an understanding of language acquisition and development;
    4. to recognize the impact of cultural, economic, political, and social environments upon language;
    5. to show a respect for and understanding of diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles;
    6. to show an understanding of the evolution of the English language and the historical influences on its various forms; and
    7. to demonstrate an understanding of discourse anaylsis, pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology.

This course is articulated with the following NCTE program standards for future secondary educators.

Content Knowledge, II: Candidates demonstrate knowledge of English language arts subject matter content that specifically includes language and writing as well as knowledge of adolescents as language users.

Element 2: Candidates know the conventions of English language as they relate to various rhetorical situations (grammar, usage, and mechanics); they understand the concept of dialect and are familiar with relevant grammar systems (e.g., descriptive and prescriptive); they understand principles of language acquisition; they recognize the influence of English language history on ELA content; and they understand the impact of language on society.

This course also contributes to the following Middle States goals for the School of Humanities & Social Sciences and the English Department:

#1 Written Communication
#5 Critical Analysis and Reasoning:  Ability to critique the arguments of others in the discipline and the construction of one’s own arguments in the discipline, using data/evidence are a focus of instruction and/or the ability to analyze linguistic and cultural patterns
#6 Information Literacy:  Evaluating the validity and/or reliability of a source
#7 Interpret Language and Symbol
#9 Respect for Diversity:  analyze AAVE syntactically, morphologically, phonetically
#12 students will be able to analyze a written or spoken text linguistically and describe its use of language

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following graded assignments:

  1. PAPER 1 (20% of your final grade),
  2. PAPER 2 (20%),
  3. group study (10%),
  4. a midterm exam (20%), and
  5. a compehensive final exam (30%).

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:  A = 93%-100%, A- = 90%-92%, B+ = 87%-89%, B = 83%-86%, B- = 80%-82%, C+ = 77%-79%, C = 73%-76%, C- = 70%-72%, D+ = 67%-69%, D = 60%-66%, and F = below 60%.

In addition to your graded assignments, I will also periodically give ungraded quizzes at the beginning of class. These quizzes are primarily a diagnostic tool for both you and me. They help me to see what you, as a class, are having trouble mastering, and they help you to see what you still need to study. I intend them to be a low-stress experience and therefore do not grade them, but I do collect them and look them over in order to get a sense of what you have learned and what you may still need to learn.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is inside Bliss Hall 129 (the main English Department office), and my office hours this term are 1:30-5:30pm on Thursdays and 1:30-3:30pm on Tuesdays and Fridays.  If you cannot see me during these hours, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  Email is generally the fastest way to contact me.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A ¼ unit (one credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study (LAC 391) may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in another language and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. LAC 391 (P/U grading only) will be noted on the student’s transcript.  Please contact Dr. Deborah Compte at dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information.  Students must contact Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study by Tuesday, February 5, 2019.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class activities constitute important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information and practice for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.  If you must miss an exam or other in-class graded work due to a religious holiday, let me know ahead of time, and we will arrange a way for you to make up the work.  For information on the College’s attendance policy, please go to http://policies.tcnj.edu/policies/digest.php?docId=9134.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY.  Academic dishonesty is any attempt by a student to gain academic advantage through dishonest means, to submit, as his or her own, work which has not been done by him/her or to give improper aid to another student in the completion of an assignment. Such dishonesty would include, but is not limited to: submitting as his/her own a project, paper, report, test, or speech copied from, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright, or in manuscript form). Credit must be given for words quoted or paraphrased. The rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. TCNJ’s academic integrity policy is available on the web at http://policies.tcnj.edu/policies/digest.php?docId=7642.

ACCOMMODATIONS.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability.  The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community.  If you require special assistance, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.  For more information, please go to http://policies.tcnj.edu/policies/digest.php?docId=8082.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION.  We are all enriched by greater diversity, and we all bring different perspectives to this classroom.  I want to create a learning environment that supports diversity and honors your identities and perspectives (including your race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, mental and physical health, politics, etc.).  If you go by a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official records, please let me know.  If you feel that your performance in class is being impacted by experiences related to your identity outside of class, please don’t hesitate to come and talk to me.  If something is said in class (by anyone, including me) that makes you feel unwelcome, targeted, misunderstood, or disparaged as a person, please talk to me about it.  I will expect our whole class to strive always to honor every form of diversity in our classroom.  To see TCNJ’s official diversity statement, please go to https://diversity.tcnj.edu/campus-diversity-statement/.

FINAL EXAM.  As required by the College’s Final Exam/Evaluation Policy (http://policies.tcnj.edu/policies/digest.php?docId=9396), this course has an in-class final exam during the regularly scheduled final exam period for our course; the exam is comprehensive and integrative in nature and counts for at least 15% and not more than 50% of your final grade.

PAPER 1. Transcribe a poem of less than 20 lines into the International Phonetic Alphabet (according to how the words of the poem would typically be pronounced).  I recommend “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, “Thistles” by Ted Hughes, or “Kitchenette Building” by Gwendolyn Brooks (all three available online). Write a paper of 4-5 double-spaced pages in which you analyze the sounds in the poem.  This is a purely informative paper – unlike the typical thesis-driven argumentative essays that you usually write in most of your other English classes.  Are there interesting patterns of sounds within particular lines or phrases or sections (based on place and manner of articulation, voicing, phonotactics, vowel length, rounding, open and closed syllables, etc.)?  How do the sounds in the poem reflect the meaning of the lines?  How do they contribute to the poem’s overall effect?  Remember to talk about sounds – not spelling.  Submit the text of your poem and your phonetic transcription of it as an appendix to your paper (not as part of your page count).

PAPER 2. Use the Oxford English Dictionary to research the history of a single English word and write a paper of 4-5 double-spaced pages that describes that history.  This is a purely informative paper – unlike the typical thesis-driven argumentative essays that you usually write in most of your other English classes.  Where and when did your word originate (etymology)?  When and how did it enter the English language (by borrowing or some process of word formation)?  How has it evolved over time in terms of meaning (semantics), spelling (orthography), pronunciation (phonology), lexical category (syntax), and/or affixes (morphology)?  (HINT:  You should choose a word that has been a part of the English language for a while – rather than a word borrowed or formed recently.  Think about the prehistory and history of the English language and about where your word and its meanings, spellings, pronunciations, and lexical and morphological changes might fit into that larger history.  Pay attention to dates and compare the dates relevant to your chosen word to the dates of major changes and trends in English as a whole.  While changes in your word’s history may not correspond exactly to overall changes in the language, many changes are likely to correspond more or less.)

GROUP STUDY.  In order to assist you in assimilating all the new material that we cover in class, I will assign you to a team with whom you are required to meet for one hour outside of class at least ten separate times over the course of the semester.  I recommend that you meet every week (i.e., 14 times), but you are only required to meet ten times. You will receive an assignment to a group on the first day of class. You may do what you wish at these meetings – complete homework, go over notes, or discuss readings. You may not, however, work together on PAPER 1 or PAPER 2 in your group.  PAPER 1 and PAPER 2 should be done independently.

You may choose when and where you meet, but you may only meet once in any given week (no catching up all ten meetings in the last two weeks of class).  Please be considerate of classmates who may not live on campus (and may have a lengthy commute) or who may have jobs that limit their availability for meetings.  You may meet virtually through the “conferences” module in Canvas, but if you meet virtually, you must record the proceedings and be able to see and hear each other. If your group is having trouble with any of the material from class, you can invite me to come to one of your group study sessions.  I cannot, however, come to all or even most of your group’s meetings – only very occasionally at most.

After each group study meeting, each member of the group must independently summarize what you did for the session, describing any “muddy points” in the homework or readings that need clarification or any comments that you had collectively about class material.  This weekly report on your group study session should also include an accurate account of who attended and who was absent or late.  The report on your group study session need not be long (e.g., as brief as three or four sentences), but you should be as specific as possible (not just “We worked on homework” but “We worked on transcribing words from the homework into the International Phonetic Alphabet, going from ‘bell’ to ‘pour’ in the exercise in Canvas”).  Each report should be emailed to me (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu) within 24 hours after the session.  Your reports should be accurate and honest.  Any falsifications in a report are a violation of academic integrity and could result in failure in the course.

If you successfully meet the required ten times, you will receive full credit for the group study assignment (100% or A+++).  If your group meets fewer than ten times (or if you miss one or more of the group’s meetings), you will receive credit proportional to the number of meetings that you attended.  If more than two people are absent for the same group study session, that session cannot count toward your total of ten.  Contact me immediately if your group cannot seem to find a mutually agreeable time to meet or if you schedule two or more meetings to which too few people show up.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the professor. Changes in the schedule made after the start of the semester will be in red.  References to chapters are to the chapters of Yule, The Study of Language (your textbook for class).

T Feb 12NO CLASSSNOW DAY!

Date Topic Assignment
T Jan 29 Introductions ––––––––––
F Feb 1 Sounds of English Read Chapter 3.
T Feb 5 NO CLASS (I’m going to be gone to a conference) Read Chapter 2.  Choose one of the “Tasks” at the end of the chapter and do a little research on the Internet.  Write 1-2 double-spaced pages about what you learned and upload it into Canvas by the end of our regular class meeting time (4:50pm).  You may work on this assignment together in your study group.
F Feb 8 NO CLASS (I’m going to be gone to a conference) Review Chapter 3.  Do Study Questions 6-10 and Tasks A, B, and D at the end of the chapter.  Upload your answers into Canvas by the end of our regular class meeting time (4:50pm).  You should type your answers in Microsoft Word and upload the document into Canvas.  You may need to use Arial Unicode, Lucida Sans Unicode, or Gentium as your font in order to have all the IPA symbols available to you.  You may work on this assignment together in your study group.  (By the way, there’s a mistake in the instructions for Task D.  Can you find it?)
T Feb 12 NO CLASS SNOW DAY!
F Feb 15 Sounds of English Do the “Phonetics Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Think about Discussion Topic/Project II at the end of Chapter 3.
T Feb 19 Phonology and Sound Changes Do the “Additional Phonetics Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Read Chapter 4.
F Feb 22 Phonology and Sound Changes Do Study Questions 3, 5, and 8-10, Tasks D, G, and I, and Discussion Topics/Projects I and II at the end of Chapter 4.  Visit the Archive of Misheard Lyrics at http://www.kissthisguy.com.  Many misperceptions of song lyrics can be explained as resulting from phonological processes and sound changes.  Examine at least six “mishearances” and try to explain them by phonological processes.  For example, is one sound being substituted for another?  What is the relationship between the two sounds (the correct one and the one substituted)?  Or is the mishearance a matter of metathesis, epenthesis, elision, or other common sound changes?
T Feb 26 Word Formation and Morphology Do the “Phonology Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Read Chapters 5 and 6.
F Mar 1 Word Formation and Morphology Do Study Questions 2-4, 6-8, and 10, Tasks C and E, and Discussion Topic/Project II at the end of Chapter 5.  Do Study Questions 1-5 and Task C at the end of Chapter 6.  Do the “Morpology Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
F Mar 1 Syntax PAPER 1 DUE in Canvas by midnight.
T Mar 5 Syntax Read Chapters 7 and 8.
F Mar 8 Syntax Do Study Questions 1-2 and 6 at the end of Chapter 7 and Study Questions 3-6 and Task I at the end of Chapter 8.  Do the “Diagramming Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
T Mar 12 Transformations Do the “Additional Diagramming Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Look at Task C at the end of Chapter 8.
PAPER 1 DUE in Canvas by midnight.
F Mar 15 Transformations Do the “Transformations Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
T Mar 19 NO CLASS Spring Break
F Mar 22 NO CLASS Spring Break
T Mar 26 Midterm Review Do the “Additional Transformations Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Go back and re-do old exercises from scratch, particularly in areas that gave you trouble the first time around.
F Mar 29 MIDTERM EXAM
 Study, study, study.
T Apr 2 Semantics Read Chapter 9.
F Apr 5 Pragmatics and Conversation Do Study Questions 1-2, 4, and 6-9 and Discussion Topic/Project II at the end of Chapter 9.  Read Chapters 10, 11, and 15.
T Apr 9 Conversation Do Study Questions 1, 3-7, and 9, Task G, and Discussion Topic/Project I at the end of Chapter 10.  Do Tasks C and E at the end of Chapter 11.  Do “Conversation Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Go to the MICASE web site at http://micase.umdl.umich.edu/m/micase/.  Choose a transcript of a conversation (a meeting, interview, advising session, office hours, or other).  Choose a portion of the transcript that seems interesting (about 8-10 turns).  Be ready to describe what is happening in that portion with respect to speech acts, the cooperative principle, adjacency pairs, and turn taking.  Bring a copy of the relevant portion of the transcript with you to class.
F Apr 12 Neurolinguistics and Language Acquisition Do the “Additional Conversation Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas. Go to the MICASE web site at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/c/corpus/corpus?page=home;c=micase;cc=micase.  Choose a transcript of a conversation (a meeting, interview, advising session, office hours, or other).  Choose a portion of the transcript that seems interesting (about 8-10 turns).  Be ready to describe what is happening in that portion with respect to speech acts, the cooperative principle, adjacency pairs, and turn taking.  Bring a copy of the relevant portion of the transcript with you to class.  Read Chapters 12, 13, and 14.
T Apr 16 Language Acquisition Do Task C at the end of Chapter 12.  Do Study Questions 4-10 and Tasks C and D at the end of Chapter 13.  Do “Language Acquisition Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
F Apr 19 Sound Changes and Semantic Change Read Chapter 17.
T Apr 23 Prehistory of English Do Study Questions 6 and 8-10 and Task G at the end of Chapter 17.  Do “Sound Changes Exercises” and “Semantic Change Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
F Apr 26 Early History of English Do “Indo-European Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.
T Apr 30 Later History of English Do “Old English Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Read Chapter 16.
F May 3 Dialects Do “Early Modern English Exercises” under “Modules” in Canvas.  Do Tasks C and D at the end of Chapter 16.  Read Chapters 18 and 19.
T May 7 Registers and Culture Do Task F and look at Discussion Topic/Project II at the end of Chapter 16.  Do Task F at the end of Chapter 19.  Read Chapter 20.
F May 10 Final Review PAPER 2 DUE in Canvas by midnight.
FINAL EXAM PERIOD FINAL EXAM The final exam will be comprehensive (covering any and all material from the entire semester).  Study, study, study.