Anne Curzan
Author
Language
English
Description
Did you know that "girl" used to mean "a child of either sex" or that "nice" used to mean "silly, foolish"? While some words are remarkably stable, many undergo semantic shifts. This lecture surveys the five major categories of semantic change: generalization, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration, and metaphorical extension.
Author
Language
English
Description
Humans love to play with words, whether it's to better express what we have to say or to show off a personal style. Study the ways in which new words are created, from combining, shortening, and functional shifts to blends, back formation, and reduplication. This rule-governed creativity gives us everything from slang to technology jargon.
Author
Language
English
Description
Look at the history of the English dictionary over the past 400 years, culminating with today's online resources. You'll meet the likes of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, discover the origins of American spellings, and hear the story of how the monumental OED was created.
Author
Language
English
Description
Discover why the simple act of talking is so important to your success professionally and personally as the professor introduces you to the idea of becoming conversationally aware. Learn and analyze techniques for doing your share of conversational work and consider how gender affects the way we converse.
5) How Conversation Works: 6 Lessons for Better Communication: How and When to Be Direct and Indirect
Author
Language
English
Description
Interpreting the meaning behind the words that people say is key to making conversations work well. Consider the logic of conversation and understand more consciously the way we use explicit and implicit meanings - direct and indirect speech - to accomplish things through conversation. Also learn ways to redirect conversations that feel inappropriate or questions you find overly personal.
Author
Language
English
Description
Conclude your course by considering the creativity of Shakespeare. The OED credits him with making up 1,700 new words, but how many of those did he actually create? And do any of us have the authority to make up new words? You'll also see how you can apply the linguistic tools from this course to investigate the living, changing language all around you.
Author
Language
English
Description
In the most decorous of ways, delve into the world of taboo language - the inappropriate lexicon that has the power to make us laugh or blush, to offend or hurt, and to establish solidarity. After learning about the utility and ubiquity of such language, you'll have the opportunity to reflect on the changing standards of What makes a word taboo.
Author
Language
English
Description
Take on one of the most pervasive binaries in the English language: male and female. This first lecture on gendered lexicon introduces the culture of patriarchy and its effect on English, from the pejoration of words such as "wench" and "girl" to the status of gendered pairings such as "governor" and "governess."
Author
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention to Greek, which also heavily influenced the English language of learning. Here you'll uncover a Greek treasury of language - including the word web around the root of "lexicon" ("lexicography," "lexus," "lexeme"). Then you'll turn to the influence of Greek mythology on English.
Author
Language
English
Description
OMG. BFF. ROTFL. Thx. Now that 4 billion people have access to cell phones, we are writing more than ever, and with the rise of electronically mediated communication, the language is experiencing a flurry of change and innovation. While EMC is informal, rules and etiquette still apply.
Author
Language
English
Description
Who owns words? Is it our responsibility to protect brands such as Xerox and Google from legal misuse? Unpack the concerns about the proper use of trademarks and the process of "genericization," whereby a word such as "zipper" moves from a proper noun to a generic term.
12) How Conversation Works: 6 Lessons for Better Communication: How to Maintain Relationships with Talk
Author
Language
English
Description
Understand how discourse can simply relay information or build intimacy with a friend or romantic partner. Look at the fascinating research on how cooperative and competitive speaking styles differ, how parents model conversation for children from infancy, how language alignment can predict relationship success, and how electronic communications follow prescribed patterns.
Author
Language
English
Description
Have you ever thought, "There should be a word for ____"? This lecture explores some of the gaps in the English lexicon, as well as ways to account for such gaps. You'll be surprised by how limited English can be, and you'll take delight in the playful world of "sniglets" - words made up because they ought to exist.
Author
Language
English
Description
Improve your ability to navigate the conversational floor by exploring turn-taking devices as well as techniques for opening conversations and monitoring or reducing your "talk time." Weigh the pros and cons of using discourse markers and fillers such as "well," "um," and "like," and understand why being an active listener and back-channeling are crucial to being a good conversationalist.
Author
Language
English
Description
English spelling is full of irregularities - borrowings, unpredictable stresses, letters doing double duty, and vowel shifts. In this first of two lectures on spelling, examine the history of the English alphabet and the role of the Norman French, English scribes, and the printing press in creating our modern standardized spelling.
Author
Language
English
Description
Now turn to questions of usage and uncover the secret life of nouns. The Latin borrowing means the plural of "focus" is "foci," but what do you do with the non-Latin "octopus"? Or "hippopotamus"? After studying history's role in English plurals, consider the generic pronoun problem. Is "they" an acceptable substitute for "he or she"?
Author
Language
English
Description
How is the tone of "bootylicious" different from "incentivize"? Youthful, undignified, playful, and irreverent, slang is hard to define but serves an important purpose in our communications. Unlike jargon, slang is decidedly informal, and it has the power to oppose established authority and establish rapport.
Author
Language
English
Description
Where do words come from? How do they change over time? What counts as a word, anyway? Language is one of the things that reveal how our minds work, and by exploring the "secret life of words," you'll see the power of words - and what words can tell us about human history, technology, and culture.
Author
Language
English
Description
Linguists have borrowed the language of biology to trace the history of words - ancestors, family trees, variation, and selection. This lecture reflects on the blurry distinction between a dialect and a new language, then shows how systemic sound changes explain the etymological relationship between seemingly different - but related - words such as "hearty" and "cordial."
Author
Language
English
Description
Go behind the scenes of the world's dictionaries and see the very human decisions that go into creating them. Lexicographers tend to take a descriptive approach to language and study how we use words, including slang. But as readers, we turn to the dictionary for a prescriptive guide on how we should use words.