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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2018/2019

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Postgraduate Course: Reading Old English (LASC11058)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course focuses on the acquisition of the skills necessary to work with Old English text, both in edited and in unedited form. It provides students with an opportunity to acquire a reading knowledge of Old English, together with a command of central aspects of its grammar. In addition, they will learn to transcribe passages from facsimiles of Old English manuscripts, and they will prepare a student edition of one such short passage.
Course description The course will start by concentrating on the rapid acquisition of essential basic grammar, consolidated through exercises, and on the translation of short passages of simple Old English prose. Once the basics are in place, the level of difficulty and length of the passages will increase. Less central aspects of the grammar will be dealt with gradually, over the course of the semester. At this stage, we will also begin with work on transcribing and analysing Old English from facsimiles of manuscripts, which will alternate with the translation work using printed texts.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2018/19, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 196 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 50 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 50 %
Feedback Students will on several occasions be offered the opportunity to hand in a particular exercise, which will be returned to them with corrections; they get one brief and informal test in class (which will be corrected, but not marked); they get an exam briefing; they get a briefing on what is expected in the assignment, plus a separate short briefing with the MSc students to explain the different requirements for the MSc version of the assignment; and a revision session shortly before the exam where (as well as dealing with any general questions) we go through any parts of the provided past exam paper that the students present want to go through.
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)Reading Old English2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. read and translate unseen West Saxon prose with the aid of a glossary or dictionary
  2. analyse unseen Old English in terms of morphological and syntactic properties
  3. transcribe Old English from facsimiles of manuscripts
  4. make a student edition of part of a facsimile of an Old English manuscript
Reading List
You may find the following two items of particular use:

Clark Hall, John R. (1960) A concise Anglo-Saxon dictionary, 4th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [with a supplement by Herbert D. Meritt]

Mitchell, Bruce and Fred C. Robinson (2001) A guide to Old English, 6th edn. Blackwell, Oxford. [A later edition is of course fine, and in practice an earlier edition will do in most cases as well.]
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Language analysis skills
Additional Class Delivery Information Attend all lectures as scheduled
Keywordsold English,history of the English language
Contacts
Course organiserDr Linda Van Bergen
Tel: (0131 6)51 1998
Email: l.vanbergen@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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