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NOTE: To access the OED from off campus, you must first go to the Sprague Library Home Page; then go to "Databases"; then select the Oxford English Dictionary. If you don't go through the Sprague Library Home Page, you can't sign in (you'll be asked to pay). |
(NOTE: For this, and for any web page that has non-ASCII characters, be sure to set "Text Encoding" on your web browser to "Western.")
We will take a break from covering new material today. This will give you a chance to digest all the material on Old English, which is both new to you and also very important.
The Oxford English Dictionary is an incredible tool. No other language possesses a reference source like it! And it is kept up to date as well. That is why it is not free.
Its URL is http://www.oed.com -- if you are connected to the Internet through the MSU connection. If you aren't (e.g. if you are at home, etc.), see the table above.
You have a subscription to it as a student at MSU. You either have to log into the site from an MSU computer, or use your NetID and Password.
Read Appendix II, pp. 311-313, carefully.
Try the two exercises at the bottom of p. 313, "Advanced Search for Date and Language." Search for (1) all the words that first appear in the year 1600; (2) all the words of Celtic origin.
Just follow the directions. This will take you 30 seconds per search, at most. But take your time to browse among the "hits" you get.
Now go back and do question 11 on Van Gelderen, p. 83. Example:
* Search for "garlic"
* Choose "1. garlic, n." Click on "view full entry."
* At "Etymology", choose "Show more."
* Click on the link for gár gare n.1
* Once there, click on "Show more" (if necessary) to get the full etymology of this word. Notice all the cognates in other Germanic languages (Old High German, Old Norse, Gothic) and Proto-Germanic; and then the cognates in other Indo-European languages like Old Irish, Greek, Latin.
Note that it is traced to the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stem *ghaiso- and the PIE root *ghai.
The symbol * is used to mean tthat this is a hypothetical stem or root deduced by the comparative method, not actually observed. We do not have any written PIE.
Written Homework: Do the exercise on page 314 that corresponds to your group number plus or minus one (If you are in Group One, do #2; if you are in Group 2, do #1 or #3, etc.).
Consider the following two questions as #6 and #7:
6. Still using a simple search, use a wildcard (e.g. '?' for one character and '*' for any number). For instance, br?ng might get you bring, brung, brang, brong. How would you get both the singular and the plural of a particular noun?
7. While still in simple search, use the date chart to get a quick sense of the different meanings of 'sharp' and when they came into the language.
Write up your results. Email to me, but not to your group. You can discuss this when we meet in class.