An introduction to the study of language and its structure. Introduction and practice in the methodologies of the core areas of linguistics phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics from a generative perspective. Particular attention will also be paid to the analysis of language in historical and social context, including language variation, change, and diversification, and geographic and social dialectology. Some attention will also be paid to various aspects of non-verbal communication. This course is designed to give students the opportunity to figure out how English really works by examining and debating how language is created, organized, and processed.
Course work includes class exercises, two exams, and a final project.
Old and Middle English Literature Swenson Selected works in Old and Middle English literature, beginning with Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry in translation, and including works by the Gawain poet, Malory, Langland, and Chaucer, as well as readings in lyric, drama, and Late Medieval verse. We will read the plays alongside sources, literary parallels, and selections of scholarship and criticism representing a wide variety of viewpoints. We'll conclude the term with a study of Shakespeare's non-dramatic verse, including Venus and Adonis and the sonnets. Shakespeare Moss English 4165 is a study of the early plays of Shakespeare, up to 1600. We will pay particular attention to the ways Shakespeare s characters exercise power and also to the depiction of women.