CLAS 1520: Etymology

Syllabus

Associate Professor Jacques A. Bailly
School of World Languages and Cultures
231 Old Mill
jacques.bailly@uvm.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:10-3:10 and Thursdays 12-1 and by appointment.
 and by appointment.

This syllabus is posted on the web. If it changes (and the right to change it is reserved), that will be announced in class. The new syllabus replaces the old one.

C   Course Description
This course is designed to give you an overall view of where current English words come from and the tools and techniques used to find out where any word comes from.
You will acquire working knowledge of many "roots of words," particularly those that ultimately derive from Latin or Greek and have been productive in the English vocabulary.
You will also learn aspects of grammar and linguistics as well as practical knowledge about using dictionaries and other research tools.
Because English has borrowed a great number of words from all manner of languages, those patterns of English derivations will also be covered: think of languages such as Tupi, Hindi, Aymara, Russian, Quechua, Algonquian languages, Malayalam, Hawaiian, or Arabic, all of which contribute a great deal to English.
Behind extant languages are their ancestors, some of which are still around in old texts, and others of which are lost and are called proto-languages. Proto-languages are explored via comparative historical linguistics: this class will explore the Indo-European language family and how we know about Proto-Indo-European.

Course Learning Objectives

·      The hope is that your linguistic world will be transformed: you will no longer see words as isolated written or spoken things that refer to things in the "real world"--things you use and take for granted--but rather words will become rich individual things in their own right, with their own histories, characters, and specific stories, windows onto interesting hidden views of our world.

·      In practical terms, your vocabulary and your ability to use it as well as build it will be turbo-charged.

·      Information is only as good as its source: this course involves critical assessment of sources.

Attendance: Miss a quiz/test/exam, get a zero. Daily comments will be accepted only from students present in class: missing more than 3 will hurt your grade (see below).
Obvious exceptions: hospitalization, immediate family members' death (typically, two days of travel and one day being there, so at most 2 classes), etc.
We don't want sick people in class, and that is why one quiz will be dropped as will 3 daily comments: if you suffer from more illness than that, please come talk to Prof. Bailly.
Those who need accommodations for various things, please let me know as soon as possible if your schedule requires accommodations for this class. After-the-fact requests for accommodations will not be made.
Religious holidays will be accommodated.

Texts:
English Etymology by Bailly, Ambrose, Schlunk, and Gilleland is the basis of the lessons and exercises for this class and is now entirely online for this course.

Grades: You get what you earn. 91-100%=A, 81-90%=B, 71-80%=C, 61-70%=D, 60% or lower fails. Plus and minus will be given for the top three and bottom three points of each range respectively.

Graded Elements of this Course
Tues. Quizzes
 40%
Midterm and Final
 25% each
Daily Comments
 1-3 comments missed = 0% deduction from final grade
4-6 comments missed = 1.5% per comment deduction from final grade
7-9 comments missed = 2% per comment deduction from final grade
10-12 comments missed = 2.5% per comment deduction from final grade
... etc.
Project/Presentation
 10%

Procedure:
Each lesson has exercises. Prepare as many of the exercises for the lesson as you can for each day and be ready to be called on for answers. There may also be some additional material to read which will be listed on the schedule on the day it is due. It will be discussed in class.

What is listed for each day on the schedule is what is due that day.

Quizzes: Weekly on Tuesdays. Coverage: quizzes cover material covered in class up to that point, but not material that is listed on the schedule for that day (because it has not been covered in class).
Generally speaking, quizzes are on the material in the tables before the exercises in each lesson. 80% or more of the material for any given quiz will come from the same week as the quiz: some might come from previous weeks' material.
I will drop your lowest quiz grade.

'Additional' material: Topics include analysis of word formation, historical and comparative linguistics, and international scientific terminology, and that is why it counts for Catamount Core AH3. This material will be covered in class by Prof. Bailly, who will post notes about it in the 'notes' section of this website. While this material will not feature much on the quizzes, it will figure largely on the midterm and final.

Daily Comments: I like to hear from every one of you, even the silent types, so please hand in every Thursday a piece of paper with one of the following on it: 1) an etymology you find interesting, 2) a question or comment about anything relevant to class. Given the number of people in the class, it will be impossible for me to reply to or return these, and I will not get to some of them until the end of the semester: nonetheless, I will read them and record them in my grade book. To get full credit, simply do this in the right spirit. Comments that are not civil, are questionably appropriate, or do not have anything relevant to the class material on them will not receive credit. I won't be able to tell you how many you have done at any given point. Only one per person per class session, and no one may turn in someone else's: that is considered academic dishonesty and a violation of the academic code of conduct.
3 of these are 'forgiven,' by which is meant that you can miss 3 with no penalty.

Extra Credit in Heaven: go to "Free Rice" and play. Sorry, this really is just to benefit humanity, not your grade in this class.

Project/Presentation: each of you will create a 3-5 minute presentation about something relevant to the class. It may be in person or a video recording.

NOTE WELL: this course has a heavy dose of mastery of factual material in it, which requires memorization. A resource students have sometimes found helpful in the past: quizlet.com. If you can find it, there is a 'group' on that site called "Etymology" that has much of the study material for this class (students entered it a few years ago when I taught it, but I am not responsible for it): if the material there differs somehow from the material in our books, that will have to be corrected by the more industrious members of this class, and it is no excuse for a wrong answer. There may well be other quiz programs and services out there by now that work even better. Please let me know of them is you use them and want to share.

Sententious aphorism:
John Dewey, a famous UVM alumnus, once said "Education is not preparation for life: Education is life itself." Live it, believe it.