Kommentiertes Vorlesungsverzeichnis Anglistik Heidelberg SS 2008

4 PROSEMINARE
apply in different cultures, e.g. why it may be an insult or an expected formality to thank a person
depending on the respective culture.
Registration: To register, send me an email: dorothea.halbe@as.uni-heidelberg.de. Please specify
whether you want credits for this course or not.
Texts: Introductory works:
Mey, Jacob L. (2001): Pragmatics. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Huang, Yan (2007): Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana & Juliane House & Gabriele Kasper (Eds). (1989): Cross-Cultural
Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.
Course Requirements: You need to have passed ‘Introduction to Linguistics’.
The course will be continually assessed: participation (1 CP); preparation/assignment (1,5 CP);
presentation (1 CP); exam (2 CP).
4.2 Proseminar II historische Sprachwissenschaft
(Überblick)
Bachelor-Modul Studiengang/Semester
Intermediate Studies Linguistics 25% Sprachwissenschaft 4.-5. Semester
Intermediate Seminar Linguistics and Literature 50% Wahlpflichtmodul 4.-6. Semester
Intermediate Seminar Linguistics and Culture 50% Wahlpflichtmodul 4.-6. Semester
Intermediate Studies Linguistics and Literature 75% Wahlpflichtmodul 4.-6. Semester
Intermediate Studies Linguistics and Culture 75% Wahlpflichtmodul 4.-6. Semester
6 Leistungspunkte
Historische Phonologie
Matthias Eitelmann Montag 16:15 – 17:45 115 2st.
“[I]n form of speech is chaunge / Within a thousand year”, Chaucer writes in Troilus and Criseyde
(ca. 1385), continuing “... and wordes (...) now wonder nyce and straunge / Us thinketh them; and
yet they sp[o]ke them so”. Not only does this statement testify to a general realization of language
change in Middle English times, it also refers to an evident awareness of far-reaching changes in
specifically the sound system of a language. Indeed, the English language in particular has
undergone a number of drastic sound changes the impact of which can still be felt when a closer
look is taken at the huge discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation in Present-Day English.
Taking synchronic variation in everyday speech as a starting-point for our discussion, we will first
delve into the terminology of articulatory phonetics, phonology and phonological change and
clarify internal and external causes of language change (with special emphasis on sound changes).
Adopting then a diachronic stance, we will take those sound changes into consideration that
differentiate the Germanic languages from the Indo-European language family and Old English
from its West-Germanic ‘siblings’. As a next step, we will examine the major phonological changes
of Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. As sound changes are always reflected
in spelling variants, we will also be concerned with attempts of representing speech in writing
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