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Instructors: Teresa Marie Behr; Martina Bredenbröcker; Markus Freudinger; Dagmar Keatinge; Prof. Dr. Ilka Mindt
Event type:
Proseminar
Org-unit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Displayed in timetable as:
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 227
Comment:
Introducing English Corpus Linguistics
The class introduces the participants to the study of the English language by using corpora. These are large collections of language data which can be analysed electronically with corpus search tools. Starting with a historical overview and an outline of the basic methods of corpus linguistics, we will then apply this more theoretical knowledge in practical, hands-on tasks. Students are encouraged and expected to carry out and present their own corpus-based research projects.
As this course is part of the module "Methodische Grundlagen", it will also contain certain general academic skills beyond the scope of this specific seminar, including basic and advanced search for literature, the OED, time management, and form of citation.
How to Do Things with Words
What do we actually mean, when we make an utterance and what are our intentions? What kind of actions can be carried out by linguistic utterances, which conditions must be fulfilled so that our utterances make sense? We will be dealing with questions like these in our seminar and we will apply theoretical concepts to English texts both in spoken and written form. The focus of our attention will be on functions of language (according to Bühler and Jakobson), speech act theory (according to Austin and Searle), indirect utterances and misunderstandings (presuppositions, implicatures according to Grice), and general aspects of (im-)politeness theory.
Textual Analysis: Focus on Science Writing
It is easy to identify a fairy tale, an academic paper, a realistic novel or a science fiction story just from reading a few lines of the text -- but why? What is, apart from the content, about certain texts that almost immediately mark them as belonging to one genre or another? What kind of language can authors use to mimic these traits? In this course, we will look at the basics of genre analysis and examine the charateristics of a variety of text types, with a focus on science writing: academic and technical writing, as well as science fiction and the newer genre of "lab lit". As this course is part of the module "Methodische Grundlagen", it will also contain certain general academic skills beyond the scope of this specific seminar, including basic and advanced search for literature, the OED, time management, and form of citation.
Typology
Language typology classifies languages according to grammatical characteristics and not by other characteristics as e.g. genetic connections. So although two languages like English and German may be closely related genetically, they may differ immensely typologically. In the course of this seminar we will discuss basic questions like the status of morphemes and words but also more obscure topics like ergativity. The major focus will be on English and German, but we will also take into account other languages such as Turkish, Chinese, and Eskimo-Aleut languages. As this course is part of the module "Methodische Grundlagen", it will also contain certain general academic skills beyond the scope of this specific seminar, including basic and advanced search for literature, the OED, time management, and form of citation.
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