BeLing WS 05/06 (pdf, 192KB) - Institut für Sprachwissenschaft ...

Anglistik
Texts: Danet, Brenda, and Bryna Bogoch (1992), From oral ceremony to written document: The transitional
language of Anglo-Saxon wills. Language & Communication 12, 95-122; other titles to be announced later.
Aims: To allow students to discover for themselves how significantly English changed from pre-Norman times to
the late Middle Ages.
Assessment: For Lizentiat candidates: one oral presentation and one written assignment of no fewer that 3,000
words. For MA candidates: one oral presentation and two written assignments of no fewer than 3,000 words each.
Chatroom English
Monday 12-14
U. Dürmüller
First session: 31.10.2005. Masters: Not Applicable. LIZ: Seminar. First session:31.10.2005 Level: Only Liz.
students in their Main Studies. Credit Points: Liz.: 7.
Content: We will start a research programme in Chatroom English. Individual students or teams will be given a
particular chatroom to observe and use as a database. We will try to find a definition of chatting and try to
characterize chatrooms as domains. We will formulate adequate research questions and come up with
hypotheses, especially about the language used. We will try to define the socio- and psycholinguistic parameters
and will describe typical chats and their participants. We will explore the structure of chats and examine the rules
for turn-taking. We will look for particular vocabulary, recurrent formulas and fixed expressions in the language
and try to correlate them with the topics. Semantic fields, syntax, morphology and spelling conventions might also
be explored. Certainly we will not overlook the use of emoticons! Oralisation, creativity and innovation are other
aspects under which this newly evolved language can be looked at.
Texts: See course homepage: http://beam.to/chatroom available in Sept.
Aims: To provide an opportunity for students to carry out research so that they can describe a novel variety of
English.
Assessment: Regular attendance and active participation. Taking responsibility for observing the language of a
particular chatroom. Evaluation of oral presentations and a written research paper.
A Black Story of English
Wednesday 12-14
U. Dürmüller
First session: 26.10.2005. Masters: Not Applicable. LIZ: Lecture. Level: Only Liz. students in their Main Studies
Credit Points: Liz.: 3.
Content: This lecture will cover the story of Black English from its roots in Africa to its wide recognition in
contemporary life. In doing so, we will discover that there is a specifically Black side to Black English, as there is a
White one. Written documents, if possible also sound and picture documents, will help us get to know such stages
in the history of Black English as: the roots of Black English; African West Coast Pidgins; Caribbean Creoles;
Plantation varieties; Black English in the Northern cities; the Ebonics debate; Black language; Pride and
Prejudice; Black slang; Rapping and other forms of verbal art.
Texts: See course homepage: http://way.to/blackling available Sept.
Aims: To provide information about the history and development of what has been named Black English,
Ebonics, or African-American Vernacular English, including the particular coloring this history has received in the
accounts of non-Caucasian scholars and commentators.
Assessment: Regular attendance, reading assignments, participation in discussion.
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