Hauptseminar Contrasting Languages The Structures of English and German

Contrastive Linguistics is a discipline closely related to comparative linguistics and linguistic typology, but limited to just one pair of languages. In this seminar, we will compare English and German – two historically related languages that are very similar in some respects but also very different at the same time. We will learn about their common history and investigate the structural properties of the two languages as they present themselves today. Besides facilitating a better understanding of the linguistic features at different levels (phonology, word-formation, phraseology, syntax, and pragmatics), this approach can also be applied in language teaching. Contrastive Linguistics can help us understand mistakes regularly found in foreign-language learning (interference, false friends, in our own utterances too), and when actively applied in schools, it can facilitate the acquisition of difficult L2 constructions. There will be plenty of opportunity for hands-on practice with real language data from learner corpora and parallel text corpora, that will help you perform your own analyses. This course is most suitable for advanced students with an interest in structural linguistics, and good knowledge of English and German grammar. Recommended preparatory readings Hawkins, John. 1986. The Comparative Typology of English and German: Unifying the Contrasts . London and Sydney: Croom Helm. König, Ekkehard, and Volker Gast. 2007. Understanding English-German Contrasts. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Hernandez Nuria