https://evazehentner.wordpress.com/
Eva Zehentner
University of Zurich
Old and Middle English Morphosyntax
The lectures will provide insights into the morphological and syntactic systems of Old English and Middle English, with some additional information about lexis and semantics. Specifically, the first lecture will introduce students to the basic principles of Old and Middle English inflectional and derivational morphology, with a particular focus on categories of noun inflection such as case and gender, as well as verb inflection (e.g. strong vs weak verbs) and adjectival morphology. Regarding syntax, we will primarily discuss word order, agreement, and the use of periphrastic structures in both periods. Textual evidence will be drawn on to illustrate the morphosyntactic characteristics of the linguistic systems, enabling students to also get a glimpse of and appreciate the literary tradition of the time. The second lecture will then focus more explicitly on change between the periods, putting the changes observed (such as the loss of case marking, or the fixation of word order) into a larger context, and highlighting the role of both internal, cognitive factors as well as external pressures, specifically language contact, at play in these developments. This will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of how English came to be the way it is today.
ECLASS:
> Participants will receive a link for an e-class & dropbox.
