ENG303 Masteremne i Engelsk lingvistikk II/ English linguistics II
Autumn/fall 2009
Old English
Teachers
Aidan Conti, Centre for Medieval Studies, <[email protected]>
Kari Haugland, Department of Foreign Languages, <[email protected]>
Course description
Building on the Old English component of ENG211/251, this course is both a broader and a
more in-depth study of Old English language, i.e. English as attested in records prior to
c.1100. The emphasis is on prose, but the OE poetic tradition is also represented.
The course combines philological as well as linguistic approaches, stressing the
importance of a solid philological basis for linguistic analysis of earlier stages of a language.
The first six weeks of the course will cover the essential aspects of OE phonology,
morphology, vocabulary and basic syntax. Other topics comprise the nature of the extant
corpus, the OE manuscript tradition including its relationship to modern textual editions, and
the main features of OE dialectal and diachronic variation.
The second half of the course focuses on studies of Old English word order and on basic
linguistic analysis of extracts from a selection of authentic texts.
Students are expected to participate actively, both in class – including individual or
group presentations – and by self-study of primary texts, using seconday sources as reference
works.
The assessment (“exam”) will be in the form of an end-of-term portfolio consisting of
papers submitted at regular intervals during the course.
Reading list
Obligatory reading*
Brief overview (something old, something new)
Crystal, David. 1995. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language, 6–29. Cambridge: CUP.
Basic text book for the course
Baker, Peter S. 2007. Introduction to Old English. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell. (Paperback
978-1-4051-5272-3.)
Overview of OE literature
Treharne, Elaine & Phillip Pulsiano. 2001. An introduction to the corpus of Anglo–Saxon
vernacular literature. In Phillip Pulsiano & Elaine Treharne (eds), A companion to Anglo–
Saxon literature, 3–10. Oxford: Blackwell.
Phonology
Rydland, Kurt. 1994. English historical phonology. Compendium, Engelsk institutt, Universitetet i Bergen, 1–8.
Syntax/word order
Bech, Kristin. 2000. Word order patterns in Old and Middle English: a syntactic an
pragmatic study. Dr.art. dissertation, Department of English, University of Bergen.
(Selected paragraphs.)
Denison, David. 1986. On word order in Old English. Dutch Quarterly review of AngloAmerican letters 16, 277–295.
Fischer, Olga; Ans van Kemenade, Willem Koopman & Wim van der Wurff. 2000. The
syntax of early English. Cambridge syntax guides, pp. 26–35, ch. 2 (in particular pp. 49–
64), 110–29. Cambridge: CUP.
Heggelund, Øystein. 2007. Old English subordinate clauses and the shift to verb-medial order
in English. English Studies, 88:3, 351–61.
Mitchell, Bruce & Fred C. Robinson. 1994. A guide to Old English. (5th ed., w. corrections
and revisions), 61–70. Oxford: Blackwell.
Stockwell, Robert P. & Donka Minkova. 1991. Subordination and word order change in the
history of English. In Dieter Kastovsky (ed.), Historical English syntax, 367–408 (in
particular pp. 374–81, 384–88). Topics in English linguistics 2. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Extracts from primary texts (prose)
Ælfric’s Colloquy (ÆColl): Garmonsway 1939:20.22–22.41 (Also found – with glosses – in the
ENG211 text compendium (Rydland 2002, Early English texts, pp. 10–12.)
Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, first series (ÆCHom I): Clemoes 1997:439.4–441.77.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ChronA): Bately 1986; from annals 0.45, 47, 443–455, 768–787,
797, 871.
Bede’s Ecclesiastical history (Bede): Miller 1890–91:96.6–104.11
Old English Gospels: ‘Nativity of Christ’, (WSCp) Lk 2.1–20: Liuzza 1994:101–102.
The Old English Orosius (Or): Bately 1980:17.1–18.2, 18.24–27, 19.11–20, 67.22–68.9
* The basic textbook (Baker 2007) may be obtained e.g. from online booksellers. Heggelund’s (2007) article can
be downloaded via UBBs subscription to English studies. Copies of the other obligatory texts are available on
the course web site (Studentportalen).
Suggested reference works
General
Hogg, Richard M. (ed.). 1992, The Cambridge history of the English language. Vol. 1.
Cambridge: CUP.
Hogg, Richard M. 2002. An introduction to Old English. Oxford: OUP.
Mitchell, Bruce & Fred C. Robinson 1992. A guide to Old English. (5th ed.) Oxford:
Blackwell. (Or later ed., e.g. 2007.)
Smith, Jeremy J. 2009. Old English: a linguistic introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
Grammar/syntax
Campbell, A[listair]. 1959. Old English grammar. London: OUP. (Repr. 1964, Oxford:
Clarendon Press.)
Mitchell, Bruce. 1985. Old English syntax. Vols 1–2. Oxford: Clarendon.
Quirk, Randolph & C[hristopher] L. Wrenn. 1957. An Old English grammar. 2nd ed. London:
Methuen. (Or later, e.g. 1994 reprint.)
Wright, Joseph & Elizabeth Mary Wright. 1925. Old English grammar. 3rd ed. London:
OUP. (3rd ed. repr. 1950; 1st ed. 1908.)
Dictionaries
Bosworth, Joseph & T. Northcote Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary. London: OUP.
(Repr. 1954.) Also available at:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_bosworthtoller_about.html
Clark Hall, John R. & Herbert D. Meritt. 1960. A concise Anglo-Saxon dictionary.
Cambridge: The University Press. [A briefer version, without examples.]
Also available at:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_clarkhall_about.html