Hauptseminar Language Contact and Change

Language contact occurs when speakers of different languages/dialects come together. This can happen for a number of reasons. Formerly, invasion by a foreign power was a frequent reason for language contact, more recently immigration to a country, frequently in search of work, is a common cause of contact. The results of language contact depend on a variety of factors, not least the relative social standing of the groups involved, the question of power and prestige for the speakers, the relatedness of the languages in contact. Contact can be transient or intensive, it can be short-lived or last centuries. It can lead to language shift (one of the languages is abandoned by its native speakers). The levels of language involved (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) and the way in which they are affected can lead to different results in different situations. In this seminar types of contact will be viewed, both in the past (in the history of the English language) and at the present (current contact situations) and the role which contact plays in language change will be examined with a view to reaching generalisations about this common and persistent linguistic situation. Literature on Language Contact Ansaldo, Umberto 2009. Contact languages: Ecology and evolution in Asia. Cambridge University Press. Fisiak, Jacek (ed.) 1995. Linguistic change under contact conditions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva 2005. Language contact and grammatical change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hickey, Raymond (ed.) 2010. The handbook of language contact. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Joseph, Brian D. and Richard D. Janda (eds) 2001. The handbook of historical linguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Kemenade, Ans van and Bettelou Los (eds) 2006. The handbook of the history of English. Oxford: Blackwell. Thomason, Sarah G. (ed.) 1997. Contact languages. A wider perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Thomason, Sarah G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: University Press. Winford, Donald 2003. An introduction to contact linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen WS 2011/12 LGyGe, Lehramt an Gymnasien u. Gesamtschulen Professor Hickey Raymond