5

History of english

School of English and Interpreting

3rd year

Seminar 1

Topics for discussion in class

1. Old English (OE) alphabets (their origin and structure).

2. The OE sound system.

   • OE vowels (pronunciation, changes of the OE vowels: i-mutation, breaking, lengthening).

   • OE consonants (pronunciation, Grimm's and Verner's Laws, the allophones of OE fricatives).

Literature:

Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. Ch. III § 57–61, Ch. VI § 102–103, Ch. VII § 111–113, Ch. VIII § 114–147. P. 37–42, 63–65, 71–90.

Topic for independent study

1. The historical background of English.

Literature:

Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. Ch. V § 89–101, Ch. XI § 279–301, Ch. XII § 309–344. P. 55–63, 65–71, 149–179.

Assignments:

1. Compare the alphabets used by the Anglo-Saxons by compiling the table:

Features	The Runic alphabet	The Latin alphabet
Origin/Introduction
Structure*
The principle of writing

* Speak on the number of characters, their peculiar features or the peculiar characters.

2. Read The Story of Isaac's Deceit by ælfric (A Reader in the History of English. P. 21–22).

3. Copy the words with the fricative letters s, f, þ or ð and the letters h and h from The Story of Isaac's Deceit (sentences 1–2) and transcribe them. Comment on the sound values represented by these letters.

4. Do assignments 1, 2 on the given text (A Reader in the History of English. P. 22).

Seminar 2 Topics for discussion in class

1. The Old English nominal system. Form-building means used in the OE nominal system.

2. Grammatical categories of OE nouns, adjectives and pronouns in comparison.

3. The main features of the declensions:

• in nouns (the basis of morphological classification, characteristics of a-, n-, r- and root-stems);

• in demonstrative pronouns;

• in personal pronouns;

• in adjectives (the basis of morphological classification).

Literature:

Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. Ch. IX § 148–188. P. 92–108.

Assignments:

1. Provide examples of different synthetic form-building means used in the OE nominal parts of speech from The Story of Isaac's Deceit (sentences 5–9).

2. Make a list of grammatical categories for OE nouns, adjectives and pronouns and state the differences between them by compiling the following table:

Grammatical categories	Noun	Adjective/ Participle	Pronoun		Commentary
			Personal	Demonstrative
Gender
Number
Case
Person
Degree of comparison
Determinateness

3. Do assignments 4, 7, 12 on The Story of Isaac's Deceit by ælfric (A Reader in the History of English. P. 23).

4. Study the model of grammar and etymological analysis of an OE text (A Reader in the History of English. P. 50–51) and analyse the grammar of the nominal parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals) from The Story of Isaac's Deceit according to the model.