History of English

Author: Li Funing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: This book is suitable for use as a textbook for advanced undergraduate or first-year graduate courses in "History of English" at universities. The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 consists of eight chapters, describing the origin and evolution of English. The second part mainly includes early English reading texts, featuring seventeen selected passages that illustrate the characteristics of Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. This course is a semester-long course, with a focus on early English. The course that follows it is called "The Structure of English," which is also a semester-long course and focuses on modern and contemporary English. This division is necessary because knowledge of early English is often overlooked, and a dedicated course is needed to provide this knowledge. This knowledge is essential for all students who wish to delve deeper into English and British literature. The author has taught the "History of English" course four times at Peking University. According to student feedback, they found it highly beneficial, as after taking the course, most were able to read Old English prose and the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare with the help of dictionaries and annotations. Additionally, for students specializing in English phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, this course also helped them learn how to analyze linguistic phenomena from a historical and evolutionary perspective.