SoSe 20: PS-History of English
Kirsten Middeke
Comments
In this seminar you will discover the history of English. We will cover the time from the beginnings of the language in the Age of Migrations up until the Age of Exploration, where English began its spread around the world. You will learn how to read Old, Middle and Early Modern English and we will trace selected phenomena through time, so that you will be able to explain some of the idiosyncrasies of modern English (e.g. why there are irregular verbs in the language or why there are multiple ways of expressing the future). You will be introduced to basic mechanisms of language change and to the data sources (dictionaries, thesauri, corpora, text editions) and tools for doing historical linguistics. More generally, you will familiarise yourselves with linguistic variation and change and begin to comprehend language as emergent and variable rather than fixed and static.
Credit requirements of the seminar are:
- regular and active participation in discussions
- weekly reading assignments and/or research homework
- a 5-minute presentation in class (with a partner) and a 5-minute poster presentation at the end of term (in a group of three)
- an academic paper of c2000 words, based on your poster close
12 Class schedule
Regular appointments