Fortgeschrittenenseminar Language Change Progress or Decay

-The English language is falling into decay, especially by the following three venues: rap music, texting and everyday speech” (signalscv.com). People get upset about language change. The innocent use of the word less where a shrinking faction insist on fewer, for example, is enough to earn abad grammar award nomination and spark anational debate, and the notions of ‘progress’ or ‘decay’ play key roles in these debates. Continual language change, however, is natural and inevitable, and is due to a combination of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors. The ways languages change offer insights into the nature of language itself. They tell us about the ways languages are used in society, about how they are acquired by individuals and may also reveal something about its internal organisation. In this seminar will explore the pathways of language change and the different types of change (e.g. sound change, lexical change, changes in syntax) in the history of English. We will learn about possible motivations for the changes and discuss how they spread in society. We will also discuss the evidence pro and contra the equation of ‘language change’ with ‘decay of language’ and ask whether we can and should act against the changes. State exam: The contents of this class are relevant for the topic B1 language change, but also for the topics B2 morphology and syntax and B3 lexicology of the historical exam. Department III - Anglistik und Amerikanistik LMU München SoSe 2016 Dr. Krischke Ulrike