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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Günther Lampert
Event type:
Proseminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.008.160
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Registration group: ELing 160
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Contents:
While most histories of the English language subscribe to one model of history, that is, the descent from Germanic and the emergence of the standard language in one uninterrupted line of development residing in some national essence, new models have come to be suggested in recent years. One such model treats the history of English as a history of language contacts of different kinds: ranging from early Germanic or Anglo-Saxon contacts (or non-contacts) with the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians leading to a cultural revolution (the rise of a written culture), via the effects of the Anglo-Norman Conquest (bilingualism and the ensuing question of why English could survive in the first place), the many ways in which Latin served as a model for English over the centuries (in vocabulary, in grammar, in style, register, and genres), to the emergence of extraterritorial Englishes (like American, Australian, or New Zealand English) as a consequence of dialect contact, the development of entirely new languages (pidgins, creoles, mixed languages) under the influence of language contact, to the recent rise of new dialects (regional and ethnic), in both Britain and the US, as an effect of contact, levelling, and diffusion.
This class will thus systematically survey the results of contact-induced changes in English at practically all levels of the language.
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