Lehrende/r: Dr. phil. Rainer Nagel
Veranstaltungsart: Vorlesung/Übung
Anzeige im Stundenplan: Hist.Linguistics
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 45
Anmeldegruppe: English Historical Linguistics
Prioritätsschema: Senatsrichtlinie Zulassung gemäß Richtlinie über den Zugang zu teilnahmebeschränkten Lehrveranstaltungen vom 07. März 2007. Nähere Informationen hierzu entnehmen Sie bitte www.info.jogustine.uni-mainz.de/senatsrichtlinie
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: Regular attendance: According to the department's policy, you are only allowed to miss class twice. If you miss more than twice, you won't get a certificate (the much-coveted "Schein"). Requirements: Active participation, occasional homework assignments, and a final 90-minute exam (written test) in the last week of the term. Class language: Class language will be English.
Inhalt: English has always shown great flexibility and adaptability when wanting to increase its vocabulary. We can see this both in the way how English has loaned new words from other languages and how English has used its own lexical inventory to create new words. The latter would be a good starting definition for “word formation.” In this class, we will first take a look at what word-formation actually is, what it does, and how we can describe it. We will then take several looks at the vocabulary of English at various times in the history of the language to see exactly what English did at which time. Are there any tendencies that change over time? Processes that are more frequent in some times than in others? We shall begin by taking an inventory of word-formation in Old English and then move along with history to see how word-formation processes lose prominence while others gain in importance. We shall also try and explore the reasons for all these changes.
Empfohlene Literatur: A really good introduction is English Historical Word-formation: Loss versus enrichment by Klaus Faiß (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1992). It is not really necessary for registering, though.
