Inscription on a Roman statue base

The legacy of Greek and Latin in English is vast and rich, both in everyday communication and in the technical terminology of every discipline, whether scientific or humanistic.

     Our primary focus will be the analysis of English words, how they break down into their Greek and Latin roots, as well as the generation of English words from these same elements. Yet we shall also pay due attention to how and why these ancient languages were, and continued to be borrowed by English.

     The study of language is ultimately the study of history and society. Our study of Greek and Latin in English will allow us to explore the intellectual commerce that binds Western culture to the past.

The specific goals for this course are as follows:

• to learn how to reduce English words into Greek or Latin roots;
• to learn how to form English words from the same roots; and
• to explore English from ancient perspectives.

Furthermore, students will obtain and exercise the following skills:

• to manage and manipulate large sets of linguistic data;
• to analyze and language within set parameters; and
• to discern between literal and figurative usages of language, and to understand the reasons for these usages