By 11:59pm, submit your final paper and the (optional) extra credit quiz.

Study for your final, and submit your final paper by 11:59pm on Friday, 22 December!

• Read Algeo, chapter 10.

• Complete Writing Assignment #4:
  Due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, December 6^th 
  300 words minimum.

Use COCA, COHA, or another corpus on english-corpora.org, to examine 2 or more words or expressions relevant to your final project. You should use a corpus that is relevant to the timeframe and area you are examining. In the post, describe what corpus you used, and what search terms you used. Define the words or expressions (either from your own knowledge, the OED, urbandictionary.com, or whatever source is appropriate). Describe when they first appear in the corpus, and in what sort of contexts they appear (e.g. blog posts, television, everywhere). Explain how these words/expressions tie into your research.

• Read Franco & Tagliamonte (2020) to see how research on contemporary language variation is conducted.
• Create a free account on English-Corpora.org. Select “student (undergraduate)” under category. I recommend using your @cix.csi.cuny.edu email address to register. We will be doing a workshop in class on conducting research on contemporary English using corpora.

Read chapter 9 in the textbook.

You will choose one of the Early Modern texts discussed in class on Wednesday, 1 November — one that you didn’t work on in class, and not The Cronycles of Englond — from the Resources page and with it, complete the following five steps:

(1) Choose a passage of about 75 words in this text.

(2) Take a screenshot of that passage, and include that screenshot in your assignment.

(3) Transcribe that passage (i.e. retype it) in the body of your assignment. Do not modernize spellings or punctuation, but retype it with historic spellings intact, with the exception that you should replace the long s, <ſ>, with <s>. Include a citation below this transcription.

(4) Underline or bold any unfamiliar words in the transcription. Try to find their definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary online or another reputable source, and include your findings below your transcription.

(5) List your references, i.e. the source for your passage and any dictionaries that you used. (I included the citations to use for each text on our website.)

Due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, 8 November.

For an example of how to do this, see our Writing Assignment Guidelines, on the Resources page!

Read chapter 7 in the textbook.

The midterm will be this week, so study!

Also due by 11:59pm is Writing Assignment #2:

300 words minimum

Using the methods we used last week, find at least two sources that you will use for your research paper. Use them to explore your topic at greater depth. Look at this as a mini-essay, using the sources you find, to address a particular element of your topic. This may become a subsection in your final research paper, or may serve as a brief first draft.

Cite your sources using the format found in the Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics (linked here for your convenience).

Read chapter 6 in the textbook (pp. 112–138). There will be a quiz on this reading at the start of class.

Read Craig Williamson’s “Selected Exeter Book Riddles” on the Readings page. You don’t need to read through all of the riddles, but do read the first 4 pp. of the chapter and at least four of the riddles. Try solving them, if you can. Answers are still contested, and a topic of current research. For proposed solutions, see Williamson’s chapter on possible riddle solutions, also on the Readings page. There will be a quiz on this reading at the start of class.

Come to class prepared to discuss for 5 minutes one of the riddles, your proposed solution, and whatever Williamson’s proposed solution may be. (Email me before class to let me know which riddle you’ll be discussing.)