Welcome to ENGL 507 Summer 2010 So have you ever wondered…

Welcome toENGL 507

Summer 2010

So have you ever wondered….

why plurals can be so different?

• Boy• Man• Child• Ox• Alumnus• Goose• Data• Cent

• Boys• Men• Children• Oxen• Alumni• Geese• Data• 50 cent

why verbs don’t behave the same?

• Today I fitYesterday I fittedI have fitted

• I winkYesterday I winkedI have winked

• or

• Today I sitYesterday I satI have sat

• I thinkYesterday I thoughtI have thought

• I drinkYesterday I drankI have drunk

and why are some verbs really irregular?

• I existYou existHe/she/it existsWe/you/they exist

I existed

I have existed

• I amYou areHe/she/it isWe/you/they are

I was / you were

I have been

Have you ever asked….

• Who decides what’s in the dictionary?

• Who gets to add new words?

• Who decides if a word is “proper English?”

• Why do we have alternate spellings for words like color/colour and grey/gray?

And have you ever wondered• Are people with accents less intelligent than I

am? • Is slang really bad English?• Does America need an English-only law?• Iz txtng hrtng r kdz? kthx!

THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

All of these matters are covered when you study

What will you learn this semester?

• The external historical factors that have shaped English as a language. (This is a historical perspectives course, so expect to learn names, dates, events, etc.)

• The linguistic factors that have shaped English (in terms of sound systems & grammatical and vocabulary changes)—that’s why you need a semester of foreign language instruction to enroll

as well as

• The cultural and political factors and patterns of language change

• The ways people acquire and use English as a languageand

• The scholarly resources we use to study English as a language

The texts

Algeo, Origins and Development A book club choice

Multimedia Files

and access toThe MLA Handbook 2009 ed. (In paper or online)

WebCT

If you haven’t used WebCT beforeThere’s a menu on the left And navigation buttons in the

center

And there’s a class website, http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl507.htm

About the workload

Each class day in a 4-week summer session is equivalent to a week’s classes in a 15-week term. That means you’ll need to put in several hours a day on this class, and you can’t slack off or you won’t succeed. So be prepared, schedule wisely, and don’t procrastinate!

You can reach me

• By e-mail at kosterj@winthrop.edu (this also goes to my Blackberry)

• In the WebCT Coffeehouse M-W 7-9 pm

• By appointment, either online or in my office (228 Bancroft)

One caveat

This is the first time the English department has given a graduate course online, and I’m sure at some point things will get screwed up. Don’t panic. Let me know, and we’ll get it fixed. This is new for me, too! We’ll all need patience and a sense of humor—or at least one of the two.

So what do you do now?

• Get the books• Log in to WebCT at

online.winthrop.edu (go to the ACC webpage if you need help)

• Log into the course, look at today’s calendar, and get started!

• Good luck! I’m looking forward to this!