During the proseminar the following topics will be presented:
- Linguistic Typology (and their explanation)
- Principles of Language Description and Field Work
- An Overview of the English Speaking World
- Sociolects
- Pidgins and Creoles
At the beginning of the course, a script with course materials (definitions, comparative tables, grammatical sketches, text samples with interlinear translation and phonetic transcription, maps, charts etc.) will be distributed in digital form.
Seminar papers and presentations:
The topic of a seminar paper should be one variety of English and include a sketch of its phonological system, interesting grammatical and lexical features and a transcribed and analyzed sample text (minimum 10 lines in A4 format, if possible with a sound file; both text and sound file can be provided by the teacher).
Papers must follow the general guidelines of the department.
Presentations should include a handout (A4, not more than 1 page). A pdf-version of the presentation should be sent to the teacher beforehand (in case of compatibility problems with the LCD-projector).
The main focus will be on linguistic issues, so historical overviews can be reduced to a minimum. The transcriptions should be in IPA.
Suggested Reading:
Bernd Kortmann, Clive Upton (editors). Varieties of English (4 volumes with CDs). Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/ New York 2008.
For further questions: markus.gross@fh-kl.de |
