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Instructors: Dr. Matthias Eitelmann
Event type:
hybrid: Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.008.200
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Registration group: Engl. Ling. 200
Contents:
This seminar considers “bad" language from three angles.
- First, we will investigate opinions and attitudes on allegedly bad language use: Ever since the rise of prescriptivism in Late Modern English, normative grammarians have singled out what they felt to be bad language use and thus grammatically incorrect in their view leading to strong opinions on, e.g., split infinitives or sentence-final prepositions.What were their underlying reasons for this criticism? To what extent does this criticism still live on in Present-day English styleguides?
- Second, we will zoom in on "bad" language in the form of taboo expressions and swearwords: What lengths do language users go to in order to avoid tabooed expressions, and what inventory of swearwords do they draw on in order to curse? To what extent are swearwords culturally determined, and how did they change in the course of time?
- And third, we will understand “bad" language as language exploited for malignant purposes. Topics of interest will concern the linguistic phenomena of lying, slurring, and silencing.
Recommended reading list:
Cappelen, Herman & Josh Dever (2019) Bad Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Curzan, Anne (2014) Fixing English. Prescriptivism and Language History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shea, Ammon (2014) Bad Language. A History of Linguistic Aggravation. New York: Penguin.
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