A literary history of the English language

Abstract

This thesis was planned in order to provide a set of coursebooks for a new English course, ENGL 224 A Literary History of the English Language, first offered in 1993. The present books are an edited and enlarged version (by the addition of a twentieth century introduction and texts) of a first draft used this year by students. For the purpose of this presentation they have been bound in two volumes. There are two sets of pagination for the preliminary pages, to allow for an overall indexing and for the indexing of the individual sections. Because this work was for class use there has been more assistance and input from the thesis supervisors than may be customary. The coursebooks are arranged in two sets of two, each set containing one book of introductory material complementary to a book of selected texts. The first set covers the period from Old English to fifteenth century language and the second from sixteenth to twentieth century language. The first introductory coursebook includes one chapter on basic grammar and one on the pre-Old English period. Both introductory books incorporate appendices: one on metrics, the second consisting of language charts, and a third entitled Germanic specimen texts of the Lord's prayer. The language charts are the work of Drs Robert Easting and Christine Franzen. The material between pages and of Coursebook: Texts 2 has been inserted by visiting lecturers to the course. The introductory sections are intended to provide general insights into aspects of the period under consideration that are a relevant background to an understanding of the way the language is evolving at that time. They are intended to provide particular information as to the significant features of language development (morphology, syntax, vocabulary, etc.), in an ordered manner, so that students can come to an understanding and a knowledge of the progression of English language change. The accompanying texts have been chosen as representative of differing literary forms and as a means of demonstrating distinguishing language features of their respective periods.