universit ä tbochum seminarinternes vorlesungsverzeichnis ba-st

LINGUISTIK
Vorlesung
050 610 Meierkord
Language Contact, Dialect Contact, and Language Change, 2/2,5 CP
2 st. mo 12-14 HGB 10
From its early days in the 5th century to the present day, English has undergone
considerable change. Many changes resulted from extralinguistic events, such as the
Viking settlements, the Norman conquest, or trade with the Dutch and other nations.
These events led to language contact, as did the settlements of English speakers in
the various colonies, where English came into contact with local languages. In the
colonies, furthermore, speakers of different English dialects met and the ensuing
dialect contact involved processes that eventually shaped the new dialects in the
colonies.
This series of lectures will look at the changes resulting from language contact
and dialect contact from a theoretical as well as from a sociolinguistic perspective.
We will describe the diverse ecologies and investigate the resulting developments in
the English language empirically.
To obtain credits, BA and MA students need to pass a final written exam. MA
students are furthermore expected to summarise one of the lectures.
Readings:
Mesthrie, Rajend et. al. (2009). Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
Trudgill, Peter (2006). New Dialect Formation. The Inevitability of Colonial Englishes.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.