Caroline Cole

Introduction

Our relationship with language is complex and many faceted; it is our most pervasive social function and the principle medium through which all other social functions take place.  It is fundamental to the human condition.  It defines us, and we use it to define the world around us. This introduction to topics in the English language will examine our daily use of English in various contexts and how this use reflects on identity and power in our communities.

In this five-week course students will examine the function of language within a framework of socio- cultural analysis. After an introduction to the varieties of English and its historical development, students will explore the codification of language through dictionaries and develop a nuanced understanding of how language is used according to context, function and effect. Students will consider ‘literary’ uses of language and ask the question whether there is such a thing as ‘literary language’ or whether this is a construct designed to differentiate a marketable commodity from our commonplace usage.  Finally we will examine the idea of figurative language and its use in both literary and non-literary contexts.

WEEKLY TUTORIAL AND SEMINAR PROGRAMME

Week 1  ~  Standard English innit!
Students will use their personal use and understanding of the English language as a starting point
from which to explore the varieties of language use, identify differences between and functions of oral and written forms, and describe some of the major ideological issues within current linguistic and popular debate.

Week 2  ~  Lexicography: ‘When I use a word . . . it means what I choose it to mean.’
(Humpty Dumpty in Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass)
This component of the course explores the development of the English language through the lens of lexicography, or the science of dictionary making. Students will address such questions as who ‘authorises’ the English language and what controls are exercised over neologisms and new usages? Who are dictionaries for, and is a truly descriptive record of the language ever possible?  This week will include a visit to the Oxford University Press Museum and a tour of the Oxford English Dictionary department at the Press.

Week 3 – Codes, Registers and Rhetoric.
This week will examine the use of registers and codes and students will develop a nuanced understanding of their use in relation to social and occupational situations and authority.  We will explore environments in which registers and codes hold meaning and consider the concept of belonging and how this relates to the language use of specific groups. Power and persuasion will be explored through video clips and the close scrutiny of rhetorical texts both oral and written.

Week 4 – Literary Language
Students will interrogate their preconceived notions about what represents literariness by attempting to articulate why certain texts/discourses are identified as ‘literature’ and why others are not.  We will interrogate notions of definitive aestheticism through the lens of literary commentators, and students will attempt to determine for themselves what constitutes literary language, whether it can actually be said to exist, and if so, who determines it.

Week 5 –Poetic Diction and Figurative Language
Building on the previous week’s work, we will approach a definition of ‘poetic language’ through discussing and challenging ‘qualities’ of poetic diction offered by poets and literary critics.  Students will be alerted and attuned to the pervasiveness of metaphor in all kinds of discourse, and will be able to articulate and critique some of the theories associated with the deployment of metaphor in ‘literary’ texts.

Bibliography

Crystal, David  The English Language  (2002 ed) London, Penguin Books
Bex, Tony, Standard English: The Widening Debate (1999), London, Routledge.
Baugh, A C & Cable, T.  A History of the English Language (2002), London, Routledge
Widdowson P. Literature (1999), London, Routledge
Lodge, D. (ed.)  Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader (1988) London, Longman

© Oxford Academic Summer School Tours Ltd: for 2026, Oxford Summer School at Magdalen College, University of Oxford