gb - Englisches Seminar - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Procedure: Active participation is one of the basic requirements as well as the
reading and translating of the set texts for each week.
Required reading: The texts will be made available via Blackboard.
Assessment: There will be a written exam in the final session.
050 612 Müller
English in the Courtroom: English Linguistics and Forensic Analysis, 4 CP
2 st. di 14-16 GABF 04/614 Süd
Forensic linguistics is a fairly new and very exciting discipline. It may be
characterized as “performing linguistic analysis so that it can be used as evidence in
court cases”. Accordingly, the world of forensic linguists revolves around unsolved
crime cases, often blackmail. Just like other forensic experts, linguists in the
courtroom are faced with the question of whether the defendant can be linked to
evidence found in connection with a crime. This evidence may take the form of
written letters (stylistic analysis) or spoken telephone calls (identifying local accents).
As a rather convenient side effect, forensic analysis has forced linguistics to adopt
more practical approaches and methodologies, instead of focusing forever on theory.
050 613 Müller
Grammaticalisation vs. Lexicalisation, 4 CP
2 st. do 14-16 GABF 04/613 Süd
One of the classic views of functional linguistics is expressed in Talmy Givón’s
famous formula ‘Today’s morphology is yesterday’s syntax.’ Yet the view that
grammatical categories evolve out of lexical ones goes at least back to Wilhelm von
Humboldt in the early 19 th century.
The concept of grammaticalisation shows us that grammar is not a dry, dull and
boring category that simply exists. It is, in fact, constantly changing and keeps
developing new forms. So, reformulating GIvon, the grammar of the future is shaped
by texts and discourse of today.
However, sometimes today’s discourse helps shape productive means of forming
new words. Many modern word formation affixes still exhibit where they came from