The Life-Cycle of Words: Explorations in English Etymology
Etymology is a linguistic discipline which studies the history of words. It examines how words arise and evolve over time, how their forms and meanings change, how words become obsolete.
During the first part of this course, we will study how and why words change their form and investigate complex genetic relationships between various languages. Several sessions will be devoted to the historical-comparative method in linguistics and major types of sound changes in English. The history of English orthography will also be considered.
The second part of the lecture course will be devoted to historical semantics, in particular to different types of meaning changes. For instance, we will find out that nice originally meant ‘foolish and silly’, that glamour comes from grammar, and that to sell originally meant simply ‘to give’. Major semantic theories (frame semantics, prototype semantics) will be viewed in diachrony.
Several sessions will be devoted to the study of lexical borrowings. We will learn how to distinguish borrowings from cognates and discuss the major reasons for borrowing from one language to another. A part of our discussion will be devoted to the social factors that trigger major and minor changes in a lexicon.
Two classes will cover the issues of historical morphology of the English language; we will analyze the major types of word-formation in Old, Middle, and Early Modern and Modern English.
From a practical point of view, students will learn how to use etymological dictionaries of English and how to analyze lexical data from a historical perspective
Etymology is a linguistic discipline which studies the history of words. It examines how words arise and evolve over time, how their forms and meanings change, how words become obsolete.
During the first part of this course, we will study how and why words change their form and investigate complex genetic relationships between various languages. Several sessions will be devoted to the historical-comparative method in linguistics and major types of sound changes in English. The history of English orthography will also be considered.
The second part of the lecture course will be devoted to historical semantics, in particular to different types of meaning changes. For instance, we will find out that nice originally meant ‘foolish and silly’, that glamour comes from grammar, and that to sell originally meant simply ‘to give’. Major semantic theories (frame semantics, prototype semantics) will be viewed in diachrony.
Several sessions will be devoted to the study of lexical borrowings. We will learn how to distinguish borrowings from cognates and discuss the major reasons for borrowing from one language to another. A part of our discussion will be devoted to the social factors that trigger major and minor changes in a lexicon.
Two classes will cover the issues of historical morphology of the English language; we will analyze the major types of word-formation in Old, Middle, and Early Modern and Modern English.
From a practical point of view, students will learn how to use etymological dictionaries of English and how to analyze lexical data from a historical perspective
- Moderator/in: Maria Flaksman
Semester: 2024/25 Wintersemester