English 403 Term Projects

You are to write a paper of 6-8 pages on a topic relevant to any aspect of the history of the English language.  You will select the topic, and then I must approve it. The following are some suggestions to get you started thinking about what to do, but I really want to encourage you to develop your own topic, and I will be glad to meet with you to help you think it through and to suggest resources for you to use. Take some time during the next few days to decide on a topic.

Dates to observe:
           
Apr 10 (Friday): Topics due.  Write a 1-2 paragraph description of your project, detailing what sources and/or methods you will be using, what theses you hope to test, what conclusions you expect to reach. Email the topic to me by 5 pm on April 10.
May 4: Final project due via email, or submit hard copy in class.

Note: I prefer that you submit your proposals and term papers by email, but I will also be happy to read hard copy.

Topics: The best papers come from topics which you develop yourselves. Such topics should be specific, within your resources, do-able in the time-frame provided, and related to language variation and change.

Here are some suggestions to get you started thinking. They are based on ideas that are likely to work, and are not meant to limit your choice but to encourage you to go beyond what I come up with.

1. A collection of campus slang.  Make a collection of U of I campus slang.  You may wish to focus your investigation by defining a group, comparing the usage of two groups, or selecting certain types of slang. Common categories include food and drink, entertainment, dating, social groups, academic situations. Slang terms for drug-related activities are over-studied and not recommended here, nor are you advised to investigate the slang of criminals.  Don’t use written questionnaires; instead, you should plan to personally interview a number of people (preparing questions in advance, but being ready as well to improvise and follow the direction the conversation goes).  Record their data either on tape (with your subjects’ permission) or in a notebook, for later analysis.

2. Language reform.  Study one aspect of language reform (spelling, grammar, vocabulary, usage), tracing its development and its present status.  There’s lots of library material available for this project.  You’ll find a lot of weird suggestions, like the guy who proposed restoring gender to English nouns (but wanted 10-15 different genders, to accommodate the varieties of natural gender he observed), or the proposals to dump all borrowed words from English, replacing them with native ones.  But you’ll also find that some reforms seek to solve thorny language problems, like spelling and gender bias.

3. Vocabulary change. Select a newspaper or magazine from the 18th, 19th, or 20th centuries.  Study representative samples at fixed intervals (5 or 10 years, especially in 20th century) to determine changes in vocabulary, usage, and style in particular kinds of writing (editorials, features, reviews, fiction, sports, obituaries, financial, military, humor).

4. New words.  Read through the dictionaries and collections of new English words and write a paper analyzing some trends in new word development.  You might consider one of these questions: Is Modern English becoming more informal?  More scientific?  Is it dominated by foreign words?  Political correctness?  What do new words tell us about the state of American culture and society?  You may wish to search the online Lexis/Nexis database to track how certain words are being used in contemporary journalistic writing.

5. Language and gender.  There is a vast bibliography on a variety of topics relating to sexism and language.  Your investigation might look at reforms intended to create fairer, more sex-neutral language, sexism in the English vocabulary, or male-female language differences. 

6. The standardization of English.  Since the 18th century, conscious, formal attempts to standardize English usage have become fairly common. The schools, the literary community, dictionaries, and occasionally the courts, have been involved in attempts to fix, ascertain, and regulate how the language is used.  Examine some of the usage controversies, discuss the role of language education in the schools (whole language, phonics, speech therapy, spelling bees, good English week, and so on), look at language laws and court decisions relating to language (trademark, English-only, minority language rights, bilingual education, TESL).  No lesson plans, please.

7. Language in conflict.  When languages come into contact, that is usually a sign that cultures have come into conflict. While multilingualism may be inevitable, linguistic struggles frequently accompany political, social, and economic revolutions, reforms, or invasions. Language conflict, for example, has become an important issue in Eastern Europe, in the former Soviet Union, in India, China, Canada, Indonesia, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, the U.K., Australia, and, of course, in the U.S. Language becomes a personal conflict when immigrants to the U.S. face pressure to adopt English, and minority languages become endangered species. While there is a lot of library-related information to be gathered here, you may also wish to interview relatives or friends who have dealt personally with the problem of language preservation, language loss, and learning a new language in a new country.

8. World Englishes. English is a world language.  It is the language of most of the world’s mail, and three-fourths of its computer communications.  It is estimated that as many as 750,000,000 people speak English to some extent.  Because of its spread, some linguists have begun to speak of Englishes, rather than English.  Examine the competition between English and other languages both in physical space and in cyberspace for “world domination.”  Examine how “English” is affected by its status as an international language.

9. Language and law.  If you’re interested in history, politics, and law, you might want to look into legal issues that involve language questions.  Topics range from the limited and local to the universal, from the vexed notion of trademark protection (for example, the battle over the word Webster’s, to legislation mandating the language of signs, of education, and of government.  You could look at the official English movement in the U.S.  There are some key U.S. Supreme Court language decisions, the protectionist laws of France and Québec, requirements for teaching English in Korea and Taiwan, the linguistic struggles of the European Union, and the various Declarations of Universal Language Rights that have been proposed.