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English 370, Fall 2010
Assignments and Updates
See also: Blackboard
This is the Assignments and Updates Page. All assignments and updates to earlier assignments will be posted here, beginning with the most recent first.
This is the most up-to-date information available on this website. Please check this page frequently throughout the quarter!!
(To see the Midterm sentences diagrammed click here)
Thursday, December 16, or any time before:
Linguistic Self-Profile Part II: Background
You’ve been working over the last 8 weeks through a series of ways of thinking about how people use the English language. Technically, we’ve surveyed phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, and then we’ve gone on to look at language in use—particularly the ways in which utterances can be meaningful in extra-literal ways. For this assignment, I want you to use as much of this as you can on a language-based case study—on yourself. You wrote part one of this assignment as the quarter began; think of that as a starting point--what do you know now that can develop, clarify, or make more specific what you wrote then? Remember that I will not remember very clearly what you said then--it is more of an early experimental draft of what you now should be able to do with more linguistic precision and detail. So feel free about using that material again, but now upgraded and expanded to include ways of thinking about and being precise about language that you didn't have way back then.
So now that the quarter is ending, what, you may ask, do you have to say?
It should be clear from what we’ve done to this point that being a speaker of a language is always a balancing act between what “the language speaking community” defines as appropriate sounds/words/modes of expression (the constraints on us as speakers), on one hand, and what any given individual’s own language experience and/or creativity enables him or her to bring to any given speech situation, on the other. We have talked about how that means limited variation is always at the center of our language practices.
Thus each of us has our own idiolect, which is the sum
of our ability to participate in the set of discourse communities and
stylistic registers that we ourselves know. Many of us in this classroom
share some ways of speaking, but in fact NO ONE will have identical
language experience. The differences between us may not be large, but
they are there. Some of you have multi-language backgrounds, some have
different regional or national English dialects, and others will have
essentially shared Northwest American English. But even if you share
the local dialect, you will have different discourse communities to
which you belong nevertheless, and that will affect in some degree how
you perform English. You may belong to a special business or trade,
and thus have a set of words in your idiolect that no one else here
has. Or you may have made some habitual choices about how you greet
people, or how you swear (!). The point is, as much standardization
as there is in language, there is also a lot of variation.
In the old days, traditional “guardians” of language worried
about variation. If we don’t do everything we can to standardize
English in every respect, these folks felt, the whole language would
take on more and more variety and difference until the whole thing collapsed!
Few linguists would now accept that possibility; indeed, most would
think it impossible. For if language is to be able to make room for
new and more powerful modes of expression and for new and differently
educated speakers, we’d better be able to innovate. Linguistic
variation, as restricted as it is, is nevertheless both possible and
a very great asset.
In that context, perhaps you will believe that I’m really interested in what you actually do when you speak English. I don’t care whether the differences you find are huge or small, but I do want you to sort through what you do as a speaker and writer of English and locate a set of identifying characteristics of YOUR idiolect.
The Assignment
This assignment asks you to reflect upon your experience with language and to construct a 3-4 page essay presenting several of the larger insights that you gain. You will be taking yourself as a “case study” for this project and therefore you are the best authority for which aspects of your history to focus upon. Here are some ideas and questions to consider (though please do not go through and address these as a list!):
• Language / dialect factors: How would you describe your regional or personal dialect (your idiolect)? Are you multilingual / multidialectal? If so, what languages do you speak, and how, if at all, is your dialect affected by your knowledge of other languages? How do others respond to your dialect(s), styles, and/or language(s)? Consider phonetic, syntactic and morphological aspects, or any factor Yule describes in Chapters we’ve read.• Register / style factors: do you use different levels of language in different circumstances or to different people? Using concrete examples, how does your formal speech differ from your informal speech? How does your written language differ from your spoken language? Which registers of written or spoken language do you command, and which are you developing? Are you aware of particular vocabulary items which are characteristically yours?
• Family / community factors: When did you learn language and what do you remember about your early relationship to written and spoken language? Where are you from? What languages / dialects did your parents speak with you? How did your spoken language change when you went to school? What have your teachers told you about your use of language? How have your friends affected your speech?
• Individual factors: Are there quirky or idiosyncratic aspects of your language use? How do you feel about language (reading, speaking, etc.)?
In researching your own language, be sure to review all that we’ve been speaking about for the past several weeks. Your phonology, your vocabulary, your style registers, your politeness profile—or whatever you can see/hear that on one hand documents for yourself the extent to which you are members of this very classroom community and, at the same time, other communities. You can also look at your writing as evidence of your language knowledge. Are there in your writing particular variations from the norm that characterize your idiolect? Is spelling a challenge, for example? If so, can you reflect on what you do a speller? Or do you uptalk? Always? If not when? Why do you suppose you do?
In Short: Think of yourself in your role as speaker of English, and describe in terms as informed as possible by your work this quarter and then document with illustrations your own particular idiolect. As a speaker of English, Who Are You, Anyway?
This essay can be submitted either directly to me in hard copy, or online via this link via Catalyst (click here to submit paper).
Thursday, December 9
Reading: "The Speaker in the Text" (click here)
Writing: Stylistic analysis exercise. Portfolio Due. Just as I described it in class, the Portfolio will consist of three elements:
1) a table of contents with complete listing of the portfolio's contents, using an identifying label/title for each included piece.2) all of your written assignments for the term or xeroxes of them (these may be handwritten when appropriate).3) A 2-3 page essay about your experience in the course. The Self-Reflective essay should be about your experience in this class. You should prepare for it by reviewing your writing for the quarter, but the actual essay may take a number of forms. It may, for example, be a narrative of your experience in this course: why you took it, what problems it presented to you as it progressed, and what you did to address them. Or it may discuss how your attitudes about langauge have developed, changed, or not changed during the quarter: what were you thinking when you came in, and how has that changed in the ten weeks since?However you choose to set it out, the object of the exercise is to have you review your experience in the course, to think about that experience, and to do something towards evaluating and making sense of it.
Please submit your portfolio in a simple Self-Addressed, Stamped manila Envelope. I will send your material back to you once grades have been submitted. (You will need about $2 postage).
Tuesday, December 7
Reading: Yule, Chap 19, Language and Social Variation
Writing: 1-6, Tasks B, C, D. Think of an example for each of 1,2,4,5
Thursday, December 2
Reading: Chapter 10: Pragmatics.
Writing: Do exercises 1-6, and Tasks B, C, D, E.
Tuesday, November 30 SANITY RETURNS
Reading: Re-read Chapter 9, Semantics; I have also posted an extension of that chapter's treatment of semantic features to metaphor (for which, click here)
Writing: Having read the chapter and the metaphor section on the Blackboard, review the following metaphors. First the first two, identify tenor, vehicle, and grounds. For the next two, supply grounds. Then generate two each of the following kinds of metaphor: simile, implicit metaphor, submerged metaphor.
1. The little boy ran to the candy store like a speeding bullet.
2. The bystander filmed the bus as it slid down the hill like a giant, slow-motion bowling ball, sliding steadily, unstoppable until bang! it hits the parked-car pins at the bottom of the lane.
3. The evening was laid out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table.
4.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Thursday, November 25 THANKSGIVING
Tuesday, November 23 SNOW DAY. No Classes.
Thursday, November 18
Midterm #2: Syntax. Only sentences will be on this midterm.
Tuesday, November 16
Reading: Chapter 9, Semantics
Writing: Exercises again: Give me a Deep Structure, a list of the rules needed in order to transform that DS into the appropriate Revised Structure, and a drawing of the RS so generated. Before you start, however, first circle the main subject of the sentence, and then double-circle the main verb of the sentence! (A passive sentence will have two main subjects--the grammatical subject and the logical subject. In the sentence "William was hit by a car," "William" is the so-called "grammatical subject" while "a car" is the "logical subject." Circle the both the grammatical and the logical subject.) (Some in the class are still having trouble parsing surface structures--this exercise may help by directing you to get first one key element and then a second key element straight.)
(Sentence 5 is for those of you who think you have this system down cold. If you can do 5, you probably DO have it down cold.)
1. The man who had read the book spoke movingly about it.
2. The cat who had climbed up on my lap purred quietly while she slept.
3. Students are courted often by local businesses.
4. High marks on the exams were received by the students who studied together.
*5. Did the ball that Jack hit land in the basket that had been filled with flowers by Sally?
Tuesday, November 9
Reading: None for this time. (You can access diagrams for the last three of last Thursday's sentences by clicking on this link.)
Writing: Exercises again: Give me a Deep Structure, a list of the rules needed in order to transform that DS into the appropriate Revised Structure, and a drawing of the RS so generated. .
1. The car was driven by a tall blond halfback.
2. The Sheriff's having left town meant that citizens would be defending themselves.
3. That someone would ask for the waiter to bring more water irritated my partner.
4. The teacher was impressed by the students' knowing that there was a holiday on Thursday.
Thursday, November 4
Reading: None in the book
Writing: For each of the following sentences, give a Basic Structure diagram of its constituent structures, a list of whatever rules must be applied to yield its revised structure, and then a Revised Structure diagram reflecting the changes you have listed.
1. For him to run away was a great disappointment to me.
2. Will your having done the exercises bring joy to your teacher?
3. His flying airplanes scared me because I thought that they might crash.
4. That my IPhone was stolen by a pickpocket led to my being very angry.
5. I am depressed by the Mariners’ losing on the road.
Tuesday, November 2
Reading: None in the book
Writing: Here are three sentences--draw/write out a phrase structure diagram for each.
1. I expected the very wet cat to meow at the door.
2. The tall, thin writer argued that her books articulated a deeper reality.3. My leaving the room surprised the police officer.
Reading and Writing Holiday
Tuesday, October 26
Reading: REVIEW
Writing: None--unless you want to prepare a cheat-sheet. Class time will be spent with an initial 30 minutes for questions followed by Mid Term #1
Thursday, October 21
Reading: Yule, Chapter 8, Syntax.
Writing: Exercises: Work out a phonetic transcription, a phonemic description, and a morphemic description of the following two passages (from Shakespeare and Keats):
1. Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
2. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close-bosomed friend of the maturing sun....
Tuesday, October 19
Reading: Morphology: Once More from the Top! Yule, Chapter 7, Grammar.
Writing: 1) For "Morphology: Once More from the Top!" identify the morphemes, and define what KIND of morpheme each is, for the following two sentences:
-
The woman walked down the street to the bakery and asked the baker's assistant for help.
-
The beating of the drum created a distraction that enabled the burlar to steal everything in the residence.
(You may get a little confused as you do this, but that's normal. We'll sort it out on Tuesday.)
2) For Chapter 7: Exercises 1-4, and 6.
Thursday, October 14
Reading: Chapters 5 and 6, "Word Formation," and "Morphology"
Writing: Chapter 5, Exercises 1-4, 6; Chapter 6, Exercises 1-4.
Tuesday, October 12
Reading: Chapter 4, "The Sound Patterns of language"
Writing: Chapter 4, Exercises 1-6, and I and II in the Discussion Topics section.
Thursday, October 7
Reading: Yule, Chapter 3.
Writing: Exercises 2-6 and A, C, E.
Tuesday, October 5
Reading: Yule, Chapters 1 and 2.
Writing:
Step 1
You will be doing two language profiles as one of your term projects. Step 1 will be due on Tuesday; the Step 2 will be due at the end of the quarter. This first step is a snapshot of you as a speaker of English, and as such it will be your first measure of what you know about language study and about you yourself as a language user. The second step at the end of the quarter will ask you to revisit this essay, but now with the perspective that a term's worth of study will provide. You will have acquired an extensive set of understandings about what language is and about how and why we use it. Step Two will thus give you a chance to demonstrate not just how much more sophisticated you will have become about your own language use, but also a good deal about how much you've learned about the study of language generally.
Linguistic Self-Profile: Step 1
You will be working over the next 10 weeks through a series of ways of thinking about how people use the English language. Technically, we’ll survey phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, and then we’ll go on to look at language in use—particularly the ways in which utterances can be meaningful in extra-literal ways.
Through all of this I hope it becomes very, very clear that being a speaker of a language is always a balancing act between what “the language speaking community” defines as appropriate sounds/words/modes of expression (the constraints on us as speakers), on one hand, and any given individual’s own language experience and/or creativity enables him or her to bring to any given speech situation (the variation or diversity we display as speakers), on the other.
Thus each of us has our own idiolect of English. All of us in this classroom share some ways of speaking—that’s how we can make sense to each other. But in fact NO ONE here or anywhere else will or even could have identical idiolects. The differences between us may not always be large, but they are nevertheless there. Some of you have multi-language backgrounds, some have different regional or national English dialects, and others will have essentially shared Northwest American English. But even if you only share the local northwest dialect, you will still have different discourse communities to which you belong, and that fact will affect in some degree how you perform English. Thus if you belong to a special business or trade, you are likely to have a set of words in your idiolect that no one else here has. Or you may have made some habitual choices about how you greet people, or how you swear (!). The point is, as much standardization as there is in language, there is also a lot of variation.
In all that you write, please believe that I’m really interested in what you actually do when you speak English. I don’t care whether the differences you find between the way you speak and others speak are huge or small, but I do want you to sort through what you do as a speaker and writer of English and locate a set of identifying characteristics of YOUR idiolect.
The Writing.
This assignment asks you to reflect upon your experience with language and to construct a 2-3 page essay about yourself as a user of English. You will be taking yourself as a “case study” for this project and therefore you are the best authority there is on which aspects of your history to focus upon. You are thus the insider here, and your job is to explain your linguistic self to me as an outsider to your experience.
Here are some ideas and questions to consider (though please do not in your paper just address these as a list!):
• Language / dialect factors: How would you describe your regional or personal dialect (your idiolect)? Are you multilingual / multidialectal? If so, what languages do you speak, and how, if at all, is your dialect affected by your knowledge of other languages? How do others respond to your dialect(s), styles, and/or language(s)?• Family / community factors: When you did you learn language and what do you remember about your early relationship to written and spoken language? Where are you from? What languages / dialects did your parents speak with you? How did your spoken language change when you went to school? What have your teachers told you about your use of language? How have your friends affected your speech?• Register / style factors: do you use different levels of language in different circumstances or to different people? Using concrete examples, how does your formal speech differ from your informal speech? How does your written language differ from your spoken language? Are you aware of particular vocabulary items which are characteristically yours?• Individual factors: Have you developed any quirky or idiosyncratic ways of using language? How do you feel about language (reading, speaking, etc.)? What are your pleasures with language? What do you detest? How? Why?
In Short: Think of yourself in your role as speaker of English, and describe and illustrate your own particular idiolect.
(This assignment is based on an assignment designed
by Professor Colette Moore.)
.