Please review the first four sections of Van Gelderen's Chapter 4, pp. 51-71. The rest of the chapter, pp. 71-80, won't make much sense without knowing the first part. And you will need to know both parts for the HW assignment.
Study Section 5, "Old English Syntax", carefully. Note, and make sure you understand: (1) lack of prepositions; (2) relatively free word order; (3) subject pronoun omission; (4) almost total lack of auxiliaries; (5) co-ordinate structure, as opposed to the use of subordinate clauses, as in ModEng (= Modern English); (6) adverbs as discourse markers; (7) the negative adverb and its use;
Read carefully through the text of King Alfred's version of Orosius (= Paulus Orosius's History of the World), pp. 75-76.
It is very helpful to have a text like this, with running comments on the language used in it! (For the very beginning of this text, see #11, p. 32).
Section 6, "The Old English Lexicon" ("lexicon" - list of words, dictionary, or "wordhord" (BT 1266). Look at "shifts of meaning" on p. 79 (top to middle), including: prefixes; narrowing; widening; metaphorical extension; and shifts of meaning. "Folk etymology" is fun too.
Read through Section 7: "Old English Dialects". Note here the Southern (West Saxon) breaking of front vowels; the more "back" pronunciation of short a before a nasal in the North.
Written Homework: Do Exercises 6, 8, 9, 11, pp. 82-83.
We will discuss this in class.
As always, remember that your HW is not a test! It's an exercise to help you understand and learn the contents of the chapter. So please, do not look for the answers!
Email to me. NOT to your group.
NB: As always, bring your text to class with you.