The course ‘A History of the English Language’ aims to arm students with the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary to understand all systems of the English language from the earliest written records to the present day, their peculiarities, changes, and factors that influence their development. Each period (Old, Middle, and Early Modern) is considered firstly within the framework of its political, social, and important scientific events, as a next step phonological, lexical, and grammatical systems are described in interconnection with one another.
The course structure is intended to enable students to analyze texts of different periods, to read and understand language material of each period, and to dwell upon different language laws and phenomena. An interdisciplinary approach is embedded in the course, with dedicated classes to Morphological, Lexical, and Phonological peculiarities of the English Language.
This course sets the groundwork for further studying such courses as Semantics, Cultural Studies, Theoretical Grammar, and Text Analysis enabling students to bring in historical perspective into a linguistic investigation. Students will work on developing a critical understanding of different and sometimes conflicting approaches to the study of the history of the English language.
- Викладач: Соловйова Ольга Валентинівна