In matters not relating to the grad dinner, these are the study questions for ENGL 2060.
ENGL 2060
Study Questions Chs 7 – 11
Ch 7
1. Discuss the decay of the inflectional endings and its implications on the nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and other grammatical categories of the English language.
2. What is the status of the strong and weak verbs in the Middle English period?
3. What does the weakening of word ending generally indicate?
4. What happened to the strong verbs?
5. How did the strong verbs become weak?
6. Describe the second stage of French borrowing, ie, what kinds of words were borrowed?
7. What is the significance of c hoosing 1250 as the dividing line between the 2 stages of French borrowing?
8. How does a study of French phonology help in determining the periods of French borrowing into English?
9. Why would Norman French be different from Paris French? Discuss the implications.
10. What are Aureate terms?
11. Why are there synonyms at three levels?
12. What are the Middle English dialects?
13. Discuss the English standard in relation to London English.
Ch 8
1. Why was Latin and Greek still popular during the Renaissance period?
2. Eventually, there was a rush for translations. Why?
3. Why was the English orthography problematic?
4. Who was Mulcaster and what did he do?
5. What are inkhorn terms? What are some of them?
6. Why was there a need to enrich the vocabulary of the English language in the period of the Renaissance?
7. What was the problem with enlarging the vocabulary of the English language?
8. Who were those who argued against enlarging the vocabulary of the English language? What were their arguments?
9. Who were in favour of enlarging the vocabulary of the English language? What were their arguments?
10. Discuss the trends of borrowing from the Romance languages.
11. Discuss the trends of borrowing from the native languages.
12. How/What does Shakespeare’s work inform us of the history of the English language during his time?
13. Describe a few changes that become definite in the Middle English period from the Old English period.
14. How is Middle English different from Modern English?
15. What is the Great Vowel Shift?
16. Explain the developments of the pronoun system in Middle English.
17. How does the verb system of Middle English differ from Modern English?
18. Why is it difficult to study Middle English conclusively?
Ch9
1. What was John Locke’s opinion on language as a whole? Why?
2. What is ascertainment? What were the endeavours related to ascertainment?
3. Stackhouse in 1731 said “we write by guess, more than any stated rule, and form every man his diction, either according to his humour and caprice, or in pursuance of a blind and servile imitation.” Explain.
4. Who was Swift? What did he do?
5. Waller wrote in verse “Poets that Lasting Marble seek, Must carve in Latin or in Greek; We write in Sand….” Why?
6. Why did the proposers of the English language academy believe that they could also have one?
7. What were the arguments /rationale for having an English language academy?
8. Who were the proponents of the English academy?
9. Did the proponents of the English academy eventually obtain approval?
10. Why was Johnson’s dictionary important?
11. Discuss the 18th century rhetoricians.
12. What are the three aims of the Grammarians?
13. Discuss some items in the English language that became prescribed during this period.
14. What is the Doctrine of Usage? Do you agree with it?
15. Discuss the expansion of the British empire and the effects on the English language.
16. Discuss new developments in the English verb system that became fixed at this time.
Ch 10
1. Overall, what would the new words in the 19th century reflect?
2. Discuss language as a mirror of progress.
3. How are new words formed? Discuss ten ways
4. Discuss extension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, degeneration, and regeneration of meaning, with plenty of examples.
5. Why was it was necessary to have a “Secretary in the French language” among the government officials?
6. What is the Received Pronunciation?
7. Baugh says the Received Pronunciation is a class rather than a regional dialect. Why?
8. Generally, discuss the English dialects during this period, in terms of sound distribution.
9. Why are Australian and New Zealand English different from British English?
10. Explain the peculiarities of South African English.
11. Baugh says distinct varieties of English have emerged in South Asia. Explain with examples.
12. Discuss the developments of the English language in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
13. Discuss how the Caribbean creoles can be related to their African sources.
14. Discuss the English creoles that have formed in various parts of the world.
15. Explain with a few examples how Creoles may differ from standard English.
16. Explain basilect, acrolect and mesolect. What are their implications on language acquisition?
17. Discuss the development of ‘gendered’ linguistic elements in English.
18. Discuss the history of the Oxford English Dictionary.
19. What is the peculiarity of Modern English in terms of the verb system?
Ch 11
14. Discuss the English language that was spoken by the first British pilgrims in America.
15. What is the status of the strong and weak verbs in the Middle English period?
16. One earlier remark made on the English language in America in the 1800s was that it is a better and more correct language than that of Britain. Why?
17. In some ways the American pronunciation is archaic compared to that in Britain. How and why?
18. Discuss the developments of the vocabulary of English in America in the early periods.
19. Discuss Webster and his contributions to (1) nationalism, and (2) the English language?
20. Describe the second stage of French borrowing, ie, what kinds of words were borrowed?
21. How did Webster influence the spelling and pronunciation of English in America?
22. What are the various dialects of American English?
23. How is the African American English different from the standard English?
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