English 3610: Assignments

This listing provides class assignments for English 3610. Dates signal the assignment should be done for that class. This page is under construction to allow some flexibility in arranging classes in the second half of our semester so you'll need to consult it regularly for changes.

The second-half semester plan covers three broad subjects:

We'll be viewing a set of videos as part of our study. Mr. McGowan will place copies of some of them on reserve to support our course.

Thursday, 2 March
Topics: Examination critique, discourse analysis paper, course plans, and library resources.
Reading: Discourse analysis paper instructions; Thomas & Tchudi 84-92.

  

Tuesday, 7 March
Topics: Language change, diachronic linguistics, the Indo-European hypothesis; the Word Museum project; using dictionary etymological information.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 45-46, 139-50, and 164-66.
In-class viewing: Start of The Mother Tongue, Program Two of The Story of English series.

 Planning: Begin thinking about a word for your Word Museum exhibit. Deadline for display is Thursday, 30 March.

Thursday, 9 March
Topics: Old English, inflections, compounding, Old Norse influences.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 150-56.
In-class viewing: Old English and Old Norse sections of The Mother Tongue.

  
Tuesday, 21 March
Topics: Middle English, reduction of inflections, French influences, language and power.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 156-59.		 Writing exercise: Complete Etymology Exercise #1.

Thursday, 23 March
Topics: Modern English, the Great Vowel Shift, spelling history.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 159-62.

Writing exercise: Use the OED to discover a word with a large number of different spellings over its history. Discuss the patterns and differences, and hypothesize why certain forms appeared. Submit your exercise typed and using course professional conventions.

Tuesday, 28 March
Topics: World Englishes; Word Museum work.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 162-63.

 Writing exercise: Write a proposal for your Word Museum project. Identify your word, resources you're using, and some dimensions or concepts you intend to show in your poster. Type your exercise, and use professional conventions.

Thursday, 30 March
Topics: Word study, etymology, contexts, and connotations.
Research and Work: Word Museum assembled.
In-class viewing and commentary: Word Museum displays.

  
Tuesday, 4 April
Topics: Discourse analysis applied, transcription conventions, and collecting problems.
Reading: Reread directions for discourse analysis project (available on course website) and Thomas & Tchudi 42 bottom-44, and 67-73, 83-92.
 E-mail assignment: By 8:30 a.m., send Mr. McGowan a message describing the communicative event your discourse analysis project will investigate. Include a description of the context, some tentative hypothesizing about significant points the project will show, and consideration of difficulties in the project.

Thursday, 6 April
Topics: Discourse, conversation and turn-taking, transcription methods, keys and discourse markers, roles, speech acts, narrative.
Reading: Chapters 20 & 21 in Ronald Macaulay, The Social Art: Language and Its Uses.
In-class viewing: Video examples of conversation and storytelling.

  
Tuesday, 11 April
Open day to work on discourse analysis project. No class meeting.		  
Thursday, 13 April
Topics: Social contexts, speech events and speech acts, discourse routines, control and presuppositions in discourse; Burke's Dramatistic Pentad (again).
Reading: Elaine Chaika, "Discourse Routines," in Language 465-73 and Thomas & Tchudi 108-11.		 Prospectus deadline: Develop a prospectus describing your discourse analysis project, context and participants, research methods, special concerns, transcription conventions, and main theoretical models.
Tuesday, 18 April
Topics: Language variation, causes, and types; World Englishes, pidgins and creoles, Bickerton's lectal model, British English.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 277-91.
 Visit the Britspeak website on the Internet: <http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/NYC/britspk/main.html>. Develop a short discussion of a set of related words that are different in their meanings or forms in British and American English. Investigate them in at least two modern descriptive dictionaries; in your discussion, include comment on how those dictionaries treat the words. Use professional research conventions in your typed discussion.
Thursday, 20 April
Topics: American English dialects, cultural values, standard English as dialect.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 291-96, pertinent "ideas" in Daniels handout.
In-class viewing: Parts of American Tongues, video on American English dialects and attitudes toward language.

 Research and writing exercise: Find a word or expression associated with North Carolina or Appalachia in The Dictionary of American Regional English (reference section, Belk Library). Xerox the entry. Develop a short typed discussion of the word's forms, meaning, and domain. Describe the kinds of evidence DARE provides to illustrate the word. Submit the Xerox with your typed discussion.

Tuesday, 25 April
No class meeting. Easter holiday.

  
Thursday, 27 April
Topics: American ethnic dialects.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 297-302.
In-class viewing: Yeah, You Right: The Language of New Orleans.
 Research exercise: Find a discussion of the Ebonics controversy on the Internet. Type up an annotated bibliography entry for the website. Use a conventional format, and include at least 100 words of descriptive or evaluative annotation.
Friday, 28 April
Submission deadline for the discourse analysis project.		 Project deadline: By noon, deliver a revised typed text of the your discourse analysis project to Mr. McGowan in his office, 121 Sanford.

Tuesday, 2 May
Topics: Dialects, social attitudes, and schools.
Reading: Thomas & Tchudi 302-08.
In-class viewing: Selection from Black on White, Program Five of The Story of English series.

 Writing exercise: Develop a thoughtful and ordered discussion of a dialect joke. Use the considerations in Thomas & Tchudi X2 on 302. Revise your discussion, and submit it in a typed form.