This course will focus on the origins of words and their historical semantic development (i.e. their change in meaning over time). Linguistic terms and processes will be discussed (where appropriate) to aid in an understanding of the English language's evolution. Elements of work formation (prefixes, suffixes, and bases), primarily from Latin and Greek, will be studied intensively, so that words can be systematically analyzed and broken down into their component parts. Words will also be studied in context (with the quotations in the Ayers text and with short readings from Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, McCrum's Story of English, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, etc.). Students will be expected to keep a word journal throughout the course in which they analyze words encountered in their general daily reading.
Units
3
Grade Basis
Regular Grades