Proseminar: Historical Syntax
Do. 11.00-13.00
Geb. 23.21 Raum U1.65 Beginn: 13.04.2000
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The central issue of this seminar will be the analysis of three syntactic topics with regard to the history of the English language. These topics are:

1. Relative clauses
2. Questions and negations
3. Subjunctive and/or passive sentences

The analyses will be carried out by three or more groups of students who will then present their results to the plenum. We will always take the Modern English phenomenon as a starting point which then should be contrasted to the same feature in earlier stages of the language, i.e. Early Modern English, Middle English, and - if possible - Old English.

In the first three lessons we will repeat different models of syntactic analysis and discuss their applicability to historical investigations. In addition, we will discuss a model analysis of a specific historical syntactic analysis.

Recommended reading:

1. Repeat what you have learnt about syntax in the Introduction to Linguistics, e.g.:
Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. New York 1983.
G. Yule. The Study of Language. Cambridge 1985.

2. Study the entry 'Syntax ' in any of the current linguistic reference works, e.g.:
David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge 1987.
Tom McArthur (Ed.). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. London 1992.

3. Have a look at some of the numerous collections of studies in this field, which are available at the University Library (do not hesitate to use the ULB's electronic catalogue and the MLA). Among many others you will find volumes edited by Dieter Kastovsky (1974 and 1991) or Jaçek Fisiak (1984).

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Voraussetzungen: Introduction to linguistics
Leistungsnachweis: Gruppenarbeit und mündliche Prüfung oder Klausur
Veranstaltungstyp: Wahlpflicht M.A./Prom.; SII: A1,2,4,
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Der Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung ist geeignet für die Zwischenprüfung

©  Rainer Holtei
last updated
20.09.2009

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