English Place-Names

Code

ENGL3013

School

English

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Autumn UK

Summary

The module employs the study of place-names to illustrate the various languages-British, Latin, French, Norse and English-that have been spoken in England over the last 2000 years. You will learn in particular how place-name evidence can be used as a source for the history of English: its interaction with the other languages, its regional and dialectal patterns, and its changing vocabulary. The interdisciplinary contribution that place-names offer to historians and geographers is also considered. Part of the module's assessment can be directed at a geographical area of particular interest to the student.

Target Students

Only available for final-year students on SH and JH English programmes; including 2+2 programmes; students participating in exchanges from the School partner institutions; and final-year students on the Liberal Arts programme.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 11 weeks
• One 2-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks

Assessment

• 100% Coursework 1: 3,500 word coursework
• In-class test 1: One-hour in class test

Assessed by end of autumn semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

The module fosters knowledge and understanding of:

• Current critical approaches to the study of place-names, and the technical vocabulary associated with these [A1]
• The historical contexts which produced English place-names from pre-history to the early modern period [A2]
• The morphology and grammar of English through time as manifested in place-names [A3]
• The ways in which the study of place-names informs and is informed by history, geography, and archaeology, as well as English language [A6]
   

Intellectual skills
The module requires that students

• Engage in close analysis of both the primary material and the related critical literature [B1]
• Evaluate alternative arguments of scholars from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries regarding the historical significance of certain place-names [B2]
• Relate these arguments to their own analysis of their primary material [B3]
• Process information derived from key reference works in relation to primary and critical material and non-textual sources such as maps and photographs [B4]

Professional and practical skills
The module requires that students

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the range of linguistic and historical-theoretical concepts which relate to the interdisciplinary study of place-names [C1]
• Analyse their material demonstrating an awareness of the chronologically and culturally disparate contexts of coining [C2]
• Produce accurate and grammatical written work both in discursive form in the body of the project, and in concise ‘reference’ form in appendices [C3]
• Reference accurately and provide full bibliographical details
• carry out independent research using standard reference works including online resources such as The Key to English Place-Names, The Digital Survey of English Place-Names, and the digital resources provided at edina.ac.uk [C5]

Transferable / key skills
Upon successful completion of the module, students will have

• Worked effectively in groups, presenting their findings orally in class [D1, D3]
• Presented their research effectively in writing [D2]
• Organised their time so as to have been prepared for the in-class map test and to have completed a substantial amount of independent research for their project in time for writing up [D4]
• Utilised reference works to retrieve a corpus of primary material for their projects [D5]
• Used the map test and resulting feedback to reflect upon the knowledge and skills gained, and those which remain to be refined in advance of completing the project [D6]

Conveners

• Professor Jayne Carroll