AU kursuskatalog arkiv

ENG: Projektemne: Worldwide Language Variation in English (ba) ( efterår 2007 - 15 ECTS )

Rammer for udbud

• Uddannelsessprog: (se under Undervisnings- og arbejdsform)
• Niveau: Bachelor
• Semester/kvarter: 5. semester
• Timer per uge: 3 
• Deltagerbegrænsning: 18
• Undervisningssted: Århus
• Hovedområde: Det Humanistiske Fakultet
• Udbud ID: 9573

Formål

Ved bedømmelsen af prøvepræstationen vil der blive lagt vægt på, i hvor høj grad den studerende

-    demonstrerer grundigt kendskab til det valgte emne, dets litteratur, teorier og problemstillinger.

-    viser færdighed i selvstændig litteratursøgning, formulering af en problemstilling, udvælgelse af relevant stof og disponering af stoffet.

-    bruger relevante fagbegreber, -teorier og -terminologier.

-    anvender relevante analytiske metoder.

-    producerer selvstændigt skriftligt arbejde om emnet.

-    vi ser færdighed i at formidle emnet klart og sammenhængende.

Indhold

"Since English began to spread around the world . . . all its varieties have taken on an independent history, some of them influenced by local circumstances, others responding to changes in the prestige dialects of Great Britain and the United States, and all of them affected by the inexorable trends in language change that affect every community from one generation to the next."

 ( Richard Bailey and Manfred Görlach , English as a World Language)

"Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied."

(Noam Chomsky, Language and Freedom )

As speakers have exported English to different territories throughout the world, language change has resulted in many different varieties.   Change is an on-going and inevitable process which happens in any living language and which may be influenced by many different factors, both language external (e.g. contact with speakers of different varieties) and language internal (principles of the grammar).

The features that characterize a particular variety are due to many different factors.   Scots, for example, developed forms distinct from Standard English through its separate development as a northern variety of English, influenced by contact with Old Norse, Dutch, and Gaelic.   This variety of English was then "exported" to Ulster , North America , Australia , and New Zealand where it was one contributing influence in the formation of new dialects there. Other factors that affect the formation of new dialects are language internal. Similar processes of language change, for example loss of third person singular 's' or the leveling of was/were , happen in more than one variety and need not necessarily involve contact . In this class we will examine the linguistic features of not only Scots but other varieties of English around the world, and consider language change, "influenced by local circumstances", and according to fixed "principles".

The background for this class is the first year module in linguistics and material covered in the second year History and Development of the English Language.   Other second year emne (e.g. Comparative Syntax and Introduction to Sociolinguistics) will give you additional resources that you may want to draw on, but are not essential.

Faglige forudsætninger

Den studerende kan først indstille sig til prøven i bachelorprojektet, når samtlige andre prøver på de to første år af bacheloruddannelsen er bestået.

Underviser

Johanna Wood

Undervisnings- og arbejdsform

Den første del af semesteret består af emneundervisning, der foregår på hold, hvor centrale dele af et specifikt emneområde gennemgås. I løbet af emneundervisningen forventes den studerende at arbejde med skriftlige opgaver og/eller mundtlige fremstillinger, individuelt og sammen med andre. I samarbejde med underviseren udvælger den studerende et særligt aspekt af emneområdet som sit projektemne. Den sidste del af semestret består af individuelt arbejde med informationssøgning og udformning af det valgte projekt, med underviseren som vejleder.

Litteratur

Bedømmelse

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