Monday, October 31, 2011

Mid-Semester Course Survey - please take a few minutes to complete this survey and let me know how you think the class is going!

Dear Students,

As an educator, I want to always look for ways to make classes better and serve my students in the best ways possible!

Please go to the following link to take the anonymous Mid-Semester Course Survey to let me know how you think the class is going and what improvements you would like to see in the class.

Fall 2011 Mid-Semester Feedback for Professor Johnson:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PTD8B6

Sincerely,
Dr. Johnson

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Extra Credit BP - Syntax Tasks

Dear students,

For extra credit, you can post an "Extra Credit - Syntax" blog post.  To complete the assignment, please make trees for the following sentences.  You may write them down and then take photos of your work and upload the photos, or you can use "Word Art" in MS Word to create trees, or other drawing software, and then save the documents as images (JPEG or GIF files) which you can then insert into your blog as an image.

Assignment
Please make syntax trees (like SoL Chapter 8) for the following sentences:

1.  She told me that he had heard that we were on vacation in Vermont.
2.  Chris assumed that I had told you that we were going to the beach next weekend.
3.  The family's twin daughters were born on November 3rd, 2008, in New York City at Columbia Presbyterian hospital.

**This extra credit assignment is due by next Thursday, Nov. 3**

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Drop course deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 25

I want to remind you of the course drop deadline coming up next week on Tuesday, Oct. 25.  You must drop a course before that date.

To remind you, the grading in this course is:


Exams & Quizzes: 50%
Blog Posts: 20%
Final Research Paper: 20%
Participation: 10%

Assignments and upcoming Quiz 5 and Exam 2

Dear students,

I have posted the Power Point lecture slides from Chapter 7 (grammar) on Bb and also a document explaining what the extra credit assignment is.  Remember, the extra credit write-ups are due on Monday (Oct. 24).

Don't forget to complete BP#5 if you haven't already, and if you missed Quiz 4, it is also on Bb and you can bring me your answers on Monday for partial credit.

Also don't forget that there will be a Quiz on Ch. 7-8 on Monday and Exam 2 (Chapters 5-8) on Thursday.

-Professor Johnson

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Blog Post #5 - Practicing Etymology and Morphology

For this post, you get to choose the words you will use!  Please choose 5 of your favorite multi-syllable (multi-morpheme) words and do the following:
  1. For each word, look up the etymology.  There are links to many etymology websites below in this blog.  Give the word's origin, original meaning, and any other information about its history and usage.
  2. For each word, discuss the style of word formation used to create it
  3. For each word, break it down into morphemes and explain what each morpheme is.
Example:
word: fantabulous

etymology: this word is a combination of the words "fantastic" and "fabulous," first seen in 1959.  Fantastic comes from the root word fantasy or phantasm, meaning in the mind. Fabulous comes from fabula (fable) meaning imaginary or mythical.

word formation: this word is a BLEND of the two words ("fantastic" and "fabulous")

morphemes: fanta-                    -bul                                   -ous
                   (stem)                   (partial stem)                    (suffix)
                   free/lexical             bound/lexical                    bound/derivational
                  (from fantasy)         (from the end of fable)     (to create an adj. from a noun)

**This is due before class on Thursday, October 20**

Article on how piranhas talk

Those Motherf***ing Piranhas can Talk to Each Other
http://gizmodo.com/5849609/those-motherfcking-piranhas-can-talk-to-each-other

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

HW and Class this week

Dear students,

This week, because we had no classes on Monday, we will only have class on Thursday.  Be prepared for a quiz on Chapters 5 & 6.

Also, be sure to visit your blogs and finish the blog assignments.  Last week, BP #4 was due.  If you haven't completed it, please do so before Thursday's class.

I will also be giving you back your first exam on Thursday, so you can get a gauge for how you are doing in the class.

Sincerely,
Professor Johnson

Article on how babies hear bilingually (NYTimes)

Here is a short, interesting article on how babies learn multiple languages and "hear" bilingually from the New York Times online:

Hearing Bilingual - How Babies Sort Out Language
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?src=tp&smid=fb-share

Monday, October 3, 2011

Blog Post #4 - Web 2.0, Social Networking, and Technology

As we have discussed in class, languages continue to change and new words are continually added, based on culture, technology, and new invention.


Please watch these interesting videos on Web 2.0, social networking, and technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo&feature=related

Questions for you:

  1. How do you think the rise of social networking affects language use? (Give some examples)
  2. Does the spread of the Internet and other technologies create a larger need for English knowledge around the world, or reduce its necessity?


**This BP #4 is due before class on Monday, Oct. 10**

New Words for 2011

Here are some websites with new words that have been added into dictionaries this year:

Merriam Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords11.htm

Huffington Post article ("sexting," "retweet," "cyberbully"):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/sexting-retweet-cyberbullying-concise-oxford-english-dictionary_n_930347.html

CNN Article ("lol," "omg," "fyi"):
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-25/living/oxford.new.words_1_new-words-oxford-english-dictionary-usage?_s=PM:LIVING

Telegraph article on new words in the OUP:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/8343136/Bloggable-and-scareware-added-to-Oxford-Dictionary.html

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Etymology

For more information about the history and background of a word, look up its etymology.  Here are a few sites that allow you to research a word's background:

http://etymonline.com/

http://www.fun-with-words.com/etymology.html

The second site, Fun with Words, also has a lot of other information about words and

Website: A Word A Day

This is the link to a website called A Word A Day, which posts definitions and origins for different words each week day.  Usually, there is a theme for the week.  Reading these words can expand your vocabulary and give you insight into the origins of words (etymology).

http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html

You can also sign up to receive an email from the site each day with the word of the day.