Seth Lerer - The History of the English Language

8/18/2019 Seth Lerer - The History of the English Language

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The History of the English Language

Course Number 800Ñ36 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

Taught by: Professor Seth LererÑStanford University

"Surprisingly comprehensive content; very clear presentation. [Professor Lerer's] enthusiasm for the subject matter is contagious."ÑRobert Aug, Nicholasville, KY

"Thank you for this unique opportunity for my husband and I to go "back to school" together for a wonderful, in-depth look at a subject that has always fascinated me. I never dreamed such a thing was possible until I received your catalog. I'm so happy I ordered the course [The History of the English Language], and we looked forward to every session. I loved every minute of itÑTHANKS!" ÑMichelle A. Green, Portola Valley, CA

As a well-read and intelligent person, you probably have an understanding of how the art form of Impressionism came to be, and who its foremost practitioners were. More than likely, you are also familiar with the contribution a composer like Aaron Copland made to the world of music (and dance).

But do you know where English, the language you communicate in each and every day, came from? Do you know how it evolved? Why we spell the way we do? Why we pronounce words the way we do? Why we use the very words we do?

Yes, English has certain commonalities with such Romance languages as French and Spanish, but do you realize what languageÑor, more properly, mix of languagesÑspawned English? Do you know when and why the British developed British accents? Or what accent Shakespeare had? (It wasnt British.) Do you fully understand the roles William Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Samuel Johnson and, more recently, Noam Chomsky, played in the evolution and understanding of English as we know ittoday? One last question: You love ideas and the experience of understanding, so wouldnt it be wonderful if every sentence you heard, read, or thought might have a pearl of insight nestled in it?

You will delight in The History of the English Language. These 36 stimulating lectures will give you a thorough understanding of the history of the English languageÑfrom its origins as a dialect of the Germanic-speaking peoples, through the literary and cultural documents of its 1,500-year span, to the state of Americanspeech today.

In addition to examining how English evolved over time in both the written and spoken form, The History of the English Language also delves into a set of larger and provocative social concerns, such as the relationship between spelling andpronunciation, how certain words denote social class, the emergence of (and varieties among) dialects, the role the dictionary played in prescribing "correct" usage, and the intriguing ways in which new words came to be formed and older wor

ds changed. Each of these issuesÑstill charged with meaning todayÑhave fascinating histories, as Dr. Seth Lerer will make clear.

Professor Lerer chairs the Comparative Literature Department at Stanford University. He has published books on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon literature, and English in the age of Henry VIII. He also has published scores of articles and reviews on the history of English and some of its greatest writers. He is thus eminently qualified to teach a fascinating overview of the history of our languageÑfrom its earliest Indo-European roots to its current status as the premier world language.


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Whats more, after years of teaching and awards from every quarter, Professor Lerer has developed an engaging, listener-friendly approach to learning. He definesconcepts well, illustrates with copious examples, is passionate about his subject, and is a particularly clear, articulate speaker. He is among the best we have heard at The Teaching Company.

Aside from his own extraordinary gifts as a speaker, Professor Lerer will amazeyou by actually speaking in the dialect appropriate to each lectureÑbe it Old English, Chaucers Middle English, or even the colloquial style of Mark Twains unforgettable character Huck Finn.

Whats more, Professor Lerer has created a course with uncommonly broad appeal. Should you, for example, have a strong literary bent, you will be fascinated by Dr. Lerers discussion of Chaucers multilingual mastery, Shakespeares linguistic innovations, and Walt Whitmans particular genius for employing poetry to change the language. Works by these renowned authors, and many others, will be read aloud byProfessor Lerer to illustrate his lecture points and ensure that you understandthe authors contribution to the evolution of the language. Professor Lerer also explains in engaging detail the impact the Bible, the great Dictionary of SamuelJohnson, and the development of the Oxford English Dictionary had on the growthand change of English.

Or, if youre a history buff, youll be stimulated by Professor Lerers insightful discussions of the Anglo-Saxon world and the consequences of the Norman invasion of

England. Youll learn why the issue of spelling came to be a major headache for schoolmasters during the Renaissance. Youll examine the genesis of American political rhetoric, brought to the fore by the likes of Jefferson and Lincoln. And youll explore the origins and development of American regional dialects, as well asthe impact of class and education on dialects.

The History of the English Language also has an intellectually stimulating technical component. Professor Lerer elucidates a number of key linguistic concepts,among them Grimms Law, the Great Vowel Shift, and the stimulating intellectual theories of Noam Chomsky, the father of modern linguistics. In addition, Professor Lerer defines and illustrates terms like etymology, lexis, morphology, philology, pidgin, and dialect, giving you a basic technical proficiency in linguistics. In a more familiar vein, Dr. Lerer sheds light on the derivation of scores of e

veryday wordsÑ"knight" and "marriage," for exampleÑwhose histories are little-known, even by those of us who commonly use them.

Finally, Professor Lerer demonstrates how contemporary issuesÑsuch as multiculturalism, dialect variation, and the ongoing debate regarding English as an official languageÑare not peculiar to this century, but were first discussed literally hundreds of years ago, even in the courts of English kings!

Professor Lerers stimulating course might best be described, then, as an engaging "mosaic" of the language you and I use daily. It is a literary, historical, cultural, political, and scientific treatment. It tells us about the distant pastÑbut also about how the past informs the present. And the course is about language as a living thing, constantly changing according to time, place, and the innovati

ons of human genius. In fact, near the close of his lectures, Professor Lerer raises intriguing questions about the status of English in the world our childrenand grandchildren will inherit.

All this is to say that, by the time you conclude The History of the English Language, you will be able to recognize why we spell and speak the way we do today. You will know how to use a dictionary (and other resources) to learn the etymologies of words and chart their changes in meaning and use. You will be able to summarize the differences among the three major periods of English: Old English,Middle English, and Modern English. You will know exactly how major English and


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American authors ingeniously used the resources of their language. You will be able to describe the differences among todays American and English dialects.

Part I - The Origins of English

Lecture 1: Introduction to the Study of Language

Lecture 2: The Historical Study of LanguageÑMethods and Approaches

Lecture 3: The Prehistory of EnglishÑThe Indo-European Context

Lecture 4: Reconstructing Meaning and Sound

Lecture 5: Words and WorldsÑHistorical Linguistics and the Study of Culture

Lecture 6: The Beginnings of English

Lecture 7: Old EnglishÑThe Anglo-Saxon World View

Lecture 8: Changing LanguageÑDid the Normans Really Conquer English?

Lecture 9: Conquering LanguageÑWhat Did the Normans Do to English?

Lecture 10: Chaucers English

Lecture 11: Dialect Jokes and Literary Representation in Middle English

Lecture 12: A Multilingual WorldÑMedieval Attitudes toward Language Change and Variation

Part II - Making Modern English

Lecture 13: The Return of English as a Standard

Lecture 14: How We SpeakÑThe Great Vowel Shift and the Making of Modern English

Lecture 15: What We SayÑThe Expanding English Vocabulary

Lecture 16: The Shape of Modern EnglishÑChanges in Syntax and Grammar

Lecture 17: Renaissance Attitudes Toward Teaching English

Lecture 18: The Language of Shakespeare (Part 1)ÑDrama, Grammar, and Pronunciation

Lecture 19: The Language of Shakespeare (Part 2)ÑPoetry, Sound, and Sense

Lecture 20: The Bible in English

Lecture 21: Samuel Johnson and His Dictionary

Lecture 22: New Standards in English

Lecture 23: Semantic ChangeÑDictionaries and the Histories of Words


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Lecture 24: Values and Words in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Part III - English in America and Beyond

Lecture 25: The Beginnings of American English

Lecture 26: Making the American LanguageÑFrom Noah Webster to H. L. Mencken

Lecture 27: The Rhetoric of Independence from Jefferson to Lincoln

Lecture 28: The Language of the American Self

Lecture 29: American Regionalism

Lecture 30: American Dialects in Literature

Lecture 31: The Impact of African-American English

Lecture 32: An Anglophone World

Lecture 33: The Language of ScienceÑThe Changing Nature of Twentieth-Century Engl

ishLecture 34: The Science of LanguageÑThe Study of Language in the Twentieth Century

Lecture 35: Modern Linguistics and the Politics of Language Study

Lecture 36: Conclusions and Provocations

Documents

Seth Lerer - The History of the English Language