SoSe 19: PS- History of English II: Focus on Nouns
Kirsten Middeke
Comments
In this course, we will study the external and internal history of the English language from its beginnings to the present day. Students will be introduced to Old, Middle and Early Modern English and gain basic reading and translation skills. Students will also be introduced to the most important sources of historical language data (text editions, dictionaries, thesauri, corpora) and will be given research tasks on all levels of linguistic analysis (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, text and discourse).
This special focus of this seminar will be on nouns and noun phrases. We will combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to study such phenomena as the Old English case system, the different strategies that speakers of English have employed to derive nouns from other words, and the changing patterns available for forming complex noun phrases.
Credit requirements are:
- regular and active participation in discussions
- weekly reading assignments and/or research homework
- the preparation and presentation of an academic poster (in groups)
- an empirical academic paper of c2000 words
12 Class schedule
Regular appointments