ENG367Y:
Second term research paper (20%)
Due: Friday, 4th
April, 2003, by 6pm.
At: In class, or to the Wetmore Hall
Porter.
Length: 2500 words (10 250-word pages).
I am not
permitted to accept any work after the last day of term, April 11th.
Remember that your take-home exam will be given out on
Thursday April 3rd and is due on Thursday April 10th.
Purpose: To assemble and to study a set of
synonyms or near-synonyms (e.g. words like holy,
saintly) in Old and Middle English –
in order to describe and explain changes in the lexis (words appearing,
disappearing), meanings (metaphor? generalization? specialization? pejoration?
amelioration? etc.), and distribution (you might consider formality, text-type)
of words.
This is more
interesting than it might sound – words for sex,
death, marriage, excrement, killing or servants were the subjects of some
of last year’s “A” papers.
I’m expecting you to focus
the paper once you’ve assembled your data. One of the best papers last year
ended up narrowing from “words for mental illness” to “words for epilepsy and
epileptics”. Another paper focussed on the very specific concept of “to make
dirty” (literally and figuratively). Another paper (by somebody called Flora) looked at a few words denoting
the flower. Make this topic your own.
Some topics will seem more straightforward than others:
it’s your job to find a way of showing off your ability to analyze definitions
and quotations and to synthesize and explain broader patterns. Depending upon
the topic, you may wish to contextualize your topic in a larger issue (e.g. the
use of French in legal terminology) or use it to solve a particular problem –
(e.g. the distinction for Chaucer between two apparent synonyms like dreme and sweven, the distinction between holy
and saintly in PDE).
Do feel free to consult me at any time about how to focus
or develop your topic! And I want you to work on something that you’re
thoroughly engaged by, so if nothing strikes your fancy on the list, go look at
the Thesaurus and see what does. If
you’re terrified of this, deal with the terror by going to look at the
thesaurus: 3rd floor Robarts, short-term loan, PE 279 R62.
Topics: I’ve listed only one or two OE
words – you find other OE and ME words! You will have to check your topic in
the Thesaurus of Old English: the
numeric code corresponds to the corresponding section. You might want to use
its index to make sure that you’ve got everything!
1.
Words
denoting “a nation, people” (02.03.04.04), e.g. folc, Ţeode. {Notice that
it distinguishes “race, tribe” from “nation, people”: you may want to refocus
the topic, depending upon your interests).
2.
Words
denoting “to have sexual intercourse with” (02.01.03.03), e.g. (ge)licgan (wiŢ, mid), cunnan, etc. [The
same section has lots on conception, child-bearing, etc.]
3.
Words
denoting “disease, infirmity” (02.08.02), e.g. sēocnes, unhaelđ, untrumnes, etc.
4.
Words
in the semantic field of “mental health” (02.08.11), e.g. gemaed, wōd, etc.
5.
Words
meaning “to kill, slay” (02.02.04.03), e.g. (ge)cwellan, ofslēan,
etc.
6.
Words
meaning “to die” (02.02.03), e.g. steorfan,
sweltan, forđ(ge)faran, etc. You might focus on euphemisms!
7.
Words
denoting parts of the body (e.g. the leg, 02.04.03.04.02), e.g. lim, scanc.
8.
Words
denoting language (09.03), e.g. (ge)spraec,
tung, etc.
9.
Words
denoting the sky, heavens (01.02.01), e.g. heofon,
lyft, etc.
10. Words denoting dirt, filth,
squalor (04.06.02) – go look!
11. Words denoting trust, faith,
confidence (06.01.08.03), e.g. gelēafa,
trēow, hopa, etc.
12. Words denoting joy, happiness
(08.01.01.03), e.g. bliss, drēam, glaednes, myrđ, etc.
13. Words denoting misery or sadness
(08.01.03) – go look!
14. Words denoting ability, capacity
(11.04), e.g. craeft, maegen, miht,
geweald, etc.; see also 12.01.01 for words denoting power, might.
15. Words denoting help, aid
(11.12.02), e.g. help, fultum, etc.
16. Words denoting followers
(12.01.01.07) and servants (12.01.01.08.01), e.g. cniht, cnapa, -mann, etc. (=knight, knave, -man)
17. Words denoting counsel, advice
(12.02.02.05), e.g. lār, raed,
etc.
18. Words denoting a province,
country, territory (12.06) – go look!
19. Words denoting a town, city,
village (12.06.02.01), e.g. burg, tūn, etc.
20. Words denoting foreign-ness
(12.06.05) – go look!
21. Words relating to marriage
(12.09...) – go look!
22. Words relating to trade and
commerce (15.05) – go look!
If
nothing catches your fancy here, go browse the thesaurus and see what does
(there are words for privies, for
instance, or for poetry).Then submit
a written proposal containing the words that you’d like to look at. Your
proposal should include (a) OE words listed in a xerox of the relevant entry
from the Thesaurus of Old English,
(b) Middle English words, (c) a sketch of what you expect to find. Topic proposals must be submitted in
writing to me by Thursday, March 13th.
The paper:
process and final product
Watch this space on the web for
any additional info arising from your questions!
The process: You
will have to be resourceful and thorough in assembling a list of OE and ME
words. Finding OE words will involve using the Thesaurus of Old English (PE 279 R62 short term loan at Robarts, 3rd
floor); finding ME words may involve working back from a PDE thesaurus and then
using quotations with ME words in order to find other ME synonyms. If you are
really keen, you may want to search the Dictionary of Old English’s online
corpus: you’ll find more contexts for your word, but will have to translate
them yourself! The DOE also has a “Latin-Old English word
wheel”, identifying all the different OE words used to translate one Latin
word. How to find the Latin word? There are online English-Latin dictionary
databases like this
one.
You will have to determine the distribution of words in OE
(consider things like their frequency, the kinds of texts they occurred in).
Some words may have been confined to poetic texts, for instance, which is full
of alliterating archaisms; some words may only have occurred once or twice. Use
your judgment to limit the topic: leave out words that don’t occur very often
in OE prose. You will have to identify and classify the meaning(s) of each OE
word. Did any words overlap in meaning? Use dictionary definitions and
quotations critically! Bosworth-Toller’s Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary and its Supplement(PE
279 B55 GENR, TRIF, UC, VICR, SMCR, IMSF) have quotations as well as longer
definitions than you’ll find in Clark-Hall’s Concise dictionary. If your word survived into ME, you should be
able to find it in the OED. You cannot leave this topic until the last
minute!
You will have to determine the distribution of words in ME
(surviving words from OE, new words from Scandinavian, French, etc., what their
denotations and connotations were, whether they occurred in particular
text-types, whether they only occur as rhyme words). How many OE words seem to
have become obsolete? Did any of the words from OE change in meaning? did any
of the ME words change in meaning during the ME period? Again, you will have to
synthesize definitions from different dictionaries, using these resources
critically: from the OED, comparing
its definitions to those in the Middle
English Dictionary (PE 679 M54 GENR, VUPR, IMSF).
You will need to be knowledgeable about the subject(s)
denoted by your words. I would use a good encyclopedia like the Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon
England (DA 152 B58 GENRef) or Medieval
England: an encyclopedia (DA 129 M43 GENRef) in order to get basic
information and a working bibliography. There are some fine online
bibliographies of the OE period by Biggam and Keynes. Online secondary sources from reputable
(academic, institutional) sources are the only acceptable internet resources
for this assignment.
There may be scholarly articles and books on your topic:
check the e-index Linguistics and
Language Behavior (U of T’s
e-indexes), the bibliographies in Old
English Word Studies (PE 239 C35 ROBA “mix”), the Historical
Thesaurus of Old English (online: find links on my “HELL” OE/ME pages). Online secondary sources from reputable
(academic, institutional) sources are the only acceptable internet resources
for this assignment.
Finally, remember
that I will be
evaluating your ability to do
research, to analyze, to synthesize, and to interpret: make sure that your
paper gives me the opportunity to assess all of these things.
The product.
Your essay should focus your topic somehow, and should describe and
explain the order that you’ve managed to impose on your data. Once you’ve
identified the relevant words and classified their meanings and distributions,
you’ll describe and account for the patterns that you’ve found. Does an OE word
narrow in meaning (deor) when an ME
word appears (beast)? Does it shift
in register (i.e. moving from mostly legal use into ordinary use)? Does it
disappear completely? Are ME words distinguished by meaning? register? region?
connotation? Try to explain how changes in distribution and/or meaning may have
occurred.
Depending upon the topic, it may be appropriate to carry
your story through early modern or modern English in order to explain the
distribution of the words (e.g. what’s the difference between royal and regal and kingly? between
tale and story?) Don’t hesitate to ask me for advice.
PLAGIARISM & ITS CONSEQUENCES.
It is an academic offence "to
represent as one's own an idea or expression of an idea or work
of another in any academic ... work" (Faculty of Arts and Science Calendar).
If I encounter plagiarism I must
report it to my department chair, who must report it to the Dean. The U of T Writing Home Page has invaluable
advice on “How Not To Plagiarize”. Please consult
me at any time if you remain in any doubt about if and/or how to acknowledge
the assistance of others.