This course, taught by a specialist in the history of English grammar, will give students an overview of the history of English phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax as well as the development of 'new Englishes' due to colonisation.  Although it is not a literature course, it will introduce students to the nature of the literature of Early, Middle, and Early Modern English and will include discussions of how scribal and editorial practices may affect our understanding of the language of texts.

On satisfying the requirements of the course, students will be able to:

1. Apply the scholarship presented in the readings as well as the analytical techniques they presented in the course to analyse a wide range of syntactic and morphological structures in Old, Middle, and Early Modern English.
2. Identify some major dialect differences in the period before the standardisation of English on the basis of the major dialect features which they have learned about in this course.
3. Systematically analyse some differences between the grammar of the English of earlier periods and the grammar of Present Day English.
4. Use the Oxford English Dictionary Online and other Web resources to learn independently about the history of individual words and collocations.
5. Demonstrate an ability to summarise concisely some major literature on a given topic.
6. Undertake independent research on a historical topic in the history of the English language and present their findings to their class.

Tutorial presentation (of approx. 8 minutes): 15%.  [Learning Outomce 5]

Two analytical assignments: 20% each. [Learning Outcomes 1-4]

Research paper (approx. 2,500 words): 35%. [Learning Outcome 6]. 

Literature review (approx. 800 words) 10%. [Learning Outcome 5]

26 hours of lectures (2 per week) and 8 tutorials shared with LING2104 students, plus at least two and up to four more 6529-only tutorials as needed for the presentation of the research reports.  Students can expect to spend 9 hours per week on this course, including lectures and tutorials.

LING6001 Introduction to the Study of Language or permission of lecturer.

Any readings will be outlined on Wattle.

None required

Co-teaching: LING2104 The History of the English Language