ang617 - Language Variation and Change

ang617 - Language Variation and Change

Institute of English and American Studies 6 KP
Module components Semester courses Summer semester 2024 Examination
Lecture
Seminar
  • Limited access 3.02.170 - S Introduction to Old English Show lecturers
    • Moss Bohrer, (they/them)

    Mittwoch: 16:00 - 18:00, wöchentlich (from 03/04/24)
    “Hwæt sceolan we drinkan?”, what looks like an odd mixture of English and German is actually correct English – just more or less 1300 years old. One can still rather easily recognize the interrogative pronoun “what” only that the “hw” is nowadays reversed. “Sceolan” is probably a little hard to decipher at first glance, however at least for German natives it should – especially in combination with the last word of the question – be quickly identifiable as the equivalent to Modern English “shall” (or sollen – in OE the “sc” was pronounced as “sh”). The fellow who phrased this particular question therefore spoke perfect (Old) English, and yet how come that it looks more like a heavy German dialect than proper English? This issue will be one of the leading questions for this seminar. Where did the English language come from? Why is it even called English? Where did the languages before English go? Was there something like an “Old English period”? To answer those (and other questions) a period of language history lasting around 800 years will be examined. The focus will thereby not only lay with understanding the basics of Old English spelling, phonology and surface structure, but also in identifying key concepts of language contact and language change and how they have left traces within the everyday language we use.
  • Limited access 3.02.171 - S Interlanguage Pragmatics: Studying EFL Learners' Pragmatic Competence Show lecturers
    • Nils Rademacher

    Montag: 16:00 - 18:00, wöchentlich (from 08/04/24)
    “Hwæt sceolan we drinkan?”, what looks like an odd mixture of English and German is actually correct English – just more or less 1300 years old. One can still rather easily recognize the interrogative pronoun “what” only that the “hw” is nowadays reversed. “Sceolan” is probably a little hard to decipher at first glance, however at least for German natives it should – especially in combination with the last word of the question – be quickly identifiable as the equivalent to Modern English “shall” (or sollen – in OE the “sc” was pronounced as “sh”). The fellow who phrased this particular question therefore spoke perfect (Old) English, and yet how come that it looks more like a heavy German dialect than proper English? This issue will be one of the leading questions for this seminar. Where did the English language come from? Why is it even called English? Where did the languages before English go? Was there something like an “Old English period”? To answer those (and other questions) a period of language history lasting around 800 years will be examined. The focus will thereby not only lay with understanding the basics of Old English spelling, phonology and surface structure, but also in identifying key concepts of language contact and language change and how they have left traces within the everyday language we use.
Hinweise zum Modul
Prerequisites
  • Aktive Teilnahme (gemäß § 9 Abs. 5 BPO neu)
  • Curriculare Abfolge (gemäß § 9 Abs. 6 BPO neu): erfolgreicher Abschluss von ang060 Introduction to Linguistics and the English Language (Teil 1 und 2)
Prüfungszeiten
Abgabe schriftlicher Leistungen bis spätestens 15.03. im Wintersemester bzw. 15.09. im Sommersemester. Schriftliche Leistungen sind zusätzlich zur Abgabe in Papierform in Stud.IP hochzuladen.
Module examination
PF
Skills to be acquired in this module
Studierende sollen in der Lage sein, Sprachwandel und Sprachvariation und die Beziehung der beiden Phänomene zueinander zu erkennen und zu erklären. Im Bezug auf den Sprachwandel bedeutet dies, dass Studierende die wichtigen Entwicklungsstadien der englischen Sprache und ihre strukturellen Hauptmerkmale (Phonologie, Morphologie, Syntax, Semantik) erkennen können und die zu Grunde liegenden generellen Faktoren verstehen, die Sprachwandel verursachen. Dies setzt das Wissen um den soziokulturellen Kontext der jeweiligen Epochen voraus. Studierende sollen sich mit den spezifischen Methoden der diachronen Sprachwissenschaft vertraut machen – im Speziellen mit den Problemen und Einschränkungen, die mit der Analyse nicht-zeitgenössischer Daten einhergehen.

Im Bereich der Sprachvariation sollen Studierende in der Lage sein die verschiedenen Arten der Variation im Sprachgebrauch unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der kontextuellen Variation (Pragmatik) und der sozialen/ regionalen Variation (Soziolinguistik) zu identifizieren. Besonders sollen sie dabei lernen, verschiedene Varietäten des Englischen systematisch zu vergleichen und Faktoren zu erklären, die Sprachvariation verursachen.

In der zu den Seminaren gehörigen Vorlesung sollen Studierende die Fähigkeit erlangen, Methoden und Verfahren der Sprachwissenschaft (besonders in den Bereichen Sprachwandel und Sprachvariation) zu beschreiben, kritisch zu evaluieren und (forschungsbezogen) anzuwenden.

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