1. Choose a passage from:Group 1: a Shakespeare playGroup 2: a modern magazine or newspaperGroup 3: a modern (postwar) poemGroup 4: a 19th century novel

• To find out which group you are in, click here

• This is not group work; each student choses their own passage.

• Include a photocopy ór printout of your passage with your returned assignment.

2. Enter the first 50 words of your passage in the left-hand column in Table 1

• Download Table 1: Word file pdf file

05.15.11 History of English 20% assignment, March 2007Due date: 16 April 2007Name:_______________________________________Group:____________ Passage:_____________________________________(include photocopy)

Word

Etymology code (see

instructions)

Comment(for your own use)

1

2

3

3. In the middle column, give the etymology code of the word concerned.

• Each word will be one of the following types:

GERMANICE Original OE, descended from Primitive

Germanic

N Old Norse

GERMANICE Original OE, descended from Primitive

Germanic

N Old Norse

LATIN (including Greek)

L0 Latin into Germanic (continental loans)

L1 Latin into Old English (until 1100)

L2 Latin into Middle English (1100-1500)

L3 Later Greek and Latin loans

GERMANICE Original OE, descended from Primitive

Germanic

N Old Norse

LATIN (including Greek)

L0 Latin into Germanic (continental loans)

L1 Latin into Old English (until 1100)

L2 Latin into Middle English (1100-1500)

L3 Later Greek and Latin loans

FRENCH

F1 Early (Norman)  French loans

F2 French 1300-1500

F3 French after 1500

GERMANICE Original OE, descended from Primitive

Germanic

N Old Norse

LATIN (including Greek)

L0 Latin into Germanic (continental loans)

L1 Latin into Old English (until 1100)

L2 Latin into Middle English (1100-1500)

L3 Later Greek and Latin loans

FRENCH

F1 Early (Norman)  French loans

F2 French 1300-1500

F3 French after 1500

OTHERO Other language

? Unknown

Looking up the etymology of English words

• Oxford English Dictionary

• Compact OED

• Douglas Harper’s “Etymonline"

• Notes:• Enter the words as they appear in the

passage and in the order they appear in the passage.

• Leave out all proper names and place names, but include all small  grammatical or structural words such as the articles "a" and "the".

• Include all repeated words and count them each time they occur - you are analysing the passage as it stands.

• Contractions such as "we'll", "they've"  are two words. Write them out in full, one on each line.

• Compound words such as "newspaper", "web-site",  are also two words.

• Words made of morphemes from different sources also count as two words - e.g. “beautiful” is from French “beauty” and English “full”.

• Look up the basic form of inflected forms; thus for "driving", "driven" etc., look up "drive".

• However, for irregular forms such as she/her, be/is etc, which have various roots, look up the actual word.

• Find the earliest form, even if this is not the same word class. For instance, if you are looking for the etymology of "balanced" you should find the verb "balance", whose earliest occurrence is 1694; but the noun "balance" occurs in 1350.

• Use the Comment column to remind yourself of repeated or compound words, and to note other points of interest.

4. Count up and calculate the proportions (in percentages) of each type.

• Enter your figures in Table 2.

• Download Table 2:   Word file   pdf file

Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket must rank as one of the grimmest portrayals of the Vietnam war. A leading character, dubbed "Joker", is asked why he volunteered; he replies: "I wanted to meet interesting, stimulating people from an ancient land ... and kill them." Confronted with the harrowing photographic evidence of abuse by British soldiers in Iraq, it is tempting to add the phrase "humiliate, sexually abuse, and torture" to this admission. We seem to have moved a long way from the promise of restoring democracy to the Iraqi people.

Word

Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

From Shakespeare, Tempest, Act I Scene 2 O, was she so? I mustOnce in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terribleTo enter human hearing, from ArgierThou know'st was banish'd; for one thing she didThey would not take her life. Is not this true?

?

E

E

E

E

E

E

E

E

E

Spring 2003 Eng+Norse Latin French

Group 1 Shakespeare 83,2 2,2 13,4

Group 2 Modern prose 72,5 6,4 19,6

Group 3 Modern poetry 84,7 3,1 10,7

Group 4 19th-cent prose 80,9 4,3 13,9

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Shakespeare Modern prose Modernpoetry

19th-centprose

FrenchLatinE+N

1997

0%

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20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Shakespeare Modernmagazine

Postwar poem 19th-centurynovel

LFE+N

1998

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Shakespeare modernmagazine

postwar poem 19th-centurynovel

LFE+N

> I have a question about the homework we have to do. On the last lecture,> you told us to differ compounded words from regular words, i.e. that> compounded words should be counted as 2. In the case of words like> "homework" or "nevertheless", it is of course obvious. But what about> those words that are recognized as one word today but was invented as a> compound word, e.g. the word "never". This happens to be the first word in> my poem which I have chosen (Advice to a son by Ernest Hemingway) and when> I looked it up on Etymonline it said that it is a compounded OE word (of> ne and æfre).> Should this be counted as one or two words then?>Good question. Going on the assumption that we are working on a modern text, the asnwer is - take it as one word. Only make split the word where we can recognize two words today.