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English has undergone considerable and fascinating changes in the course of its development, transforming from an isolated Germanic dialect into the first real world language. There are dozens of major varieties today, and it is also widely used as a means of communication between non-native speakers across much of the world. It has diversified and developed into different “Englishes”, each exhibiting distinct features, raising the issue of their relationship to existing standards. In the seminar, participants will analyze examples from various historical and contemporary varieties, also taking into account contact languages, such as pidgins and creoles, and the influence of English on other languages. We will also investigate and illustrate just how English is changing in the media and the web. As part of the seminar, we will discuss existing as well as novel research approaches to variation, ways of applying them to language data, and methods for visualizing variation. For detailed course requirements please consult the respective module descriptions. |
