A13355S1
FINAL HONOUR SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Paper 4 The History of the English Language to c. 1800
Trinity Term 2016
___________________________________________________________________________
Choose ONE question from EACH of the two sections. Each answer must be no shorter
than 2000 words and no longer than 2500 words, excluding bibliography and
appendices. Answers must be typed double spaced on one side of the paper only; the
word length of each answer must be indicated at the top of the first page.
Please remember to number your pages.
In the course of your two answers you must show knowledge of two consecutive periods
from those covered in the paper (Old English, Middle English to c.1500, early modern
English c.1500-1800).
Questions in Section B invite you to make your own selection of texts or passages of
texts to analyse, in accordance with the terms of the particular question you choose.
Copies of these texts/passages MUST be included as an appendix to EACH COPY of
your portfolio. Credit will be given for judicious selection of material, as well as for the
quality of the analysis. The material you analyse must not exceed a combined total
length of 100 lines (not 100 lines for each text selected, but 100 lines in total for all texts
selected). This limit applies to both prose and verse. It is an upper limit: in many cases,
much shorter pieces of text will be adequate for your purposes. There is no lower limit,
but the quantity of material you analyse must be sufficient to allow you to produce an
analysis of the required length.
In both sections, careful attention should be paid to the precise terms of quotations and
questions. You must acknowledge all primary and secondary sources used in your
answers, ensure that citations and quotations are accurate, and provide a bibliography
for each answer.
Section A
1. ‘Speech and writing are the same language embodied in different channels’ (K.
ANIPA).
2. ‘“Standard” and “standardization” are vexatious terms when applied to linguistic
description … Variability is central, not peripheral’ (R. BAILEY). You may restrict your
answer to ONE period if you wish.
3. ‘Loanword is a concept with necessarily fuzzy edges’.
4. ‘The mechanism of change, the inciting causes of change, and the adaptive functions of
change are best analysed by studying in detail linguistic changes in progress’ (W. LABOV).
5. ‘Variables such as gender, age, and social class are by no means easy to examine in the
history of English’. You may restrict your answer to any TWO variables.
6. ‘English lexicography before 1800 reveals an uneasy relationship between the impulse
to record and to reform’. You must make detailed reference to at least TWO dictionaries in
your answer.
7. ‘Let any man who understands English, read diligently the works of Shakspeare and
Fletcher; and I dare undertake that he will find in every page either some solecism of speech,
or some notorious flaw in sense’ (J. DRYDEN).
Section B
8. ‘Quibbling about periodization is not, perhaps, worthwhile’. Analyse TWO texts which
either support or contest this view of linguistic periodization.
9. ‘Since the standard came early and was quickly implemented, the disregarding of
dialect was quick and dramatic’ (M. GÖRLACH). Provide a close analysis of TWO texts
which make use of regional discourse in some way.
10. ‘Our best authors have committed gross mistakes, for want of a due knowledge of
English grammar’ (R. LOWTH). Find TWO texts which examine, in different ways, the
problems of correctness and control, examining the contributions which their own language
makes to this debate.
11. ‘Letters and diaries, as “language history from below”, present a range of insights into
historical practice and principle’. Provide a detailed analysis of TWO texts which seem to
you to offer ‘insights’ of this kind.
12. ‘Text-types always need to be assessed in the light of their historical and cultural
settings: language, here and elsewhere, does not exist in a vacuum’. Making close reference
to any TWO text types, assess the validity of this claim.
2
13. ‘When we consider the great anomaly of words in our language wherein the
pronunciation differs from the orthography, can we wonder that strangers should complain of
the difficulty of acquiring a proper English pronunciation?’ (J. BUCHANAN). Make a close
analysis of TWO texts, from different periods, which in some way illuminate this problem.
14. ‘Intralingual translation, seen from the point of view of language, must, of necessity,
present special difficulties’. Discuss this claim with reference to TWO texts from different
linguistic periods.
A13355S1
LAST PAGE
3