230110 Language Contact in the History of English (S) (WiSe 2018/2019)

This seminar is intended to give participants the opportunity to explore language contact in the history of the English language under
three principal aspects:
• the historical context of language contact,
• the principles which were active in the given language encounter,
• the methods which were used to arrive at the conclusions made.

The following types of contact may be drawn on as topics for the class:
• language imposition in the widest sense,
• dialect leveling (koinéization)
• immigration
• bilingualism, code-switching, and borrowing
• creolization
• vernacularization
• language planning and policy

In observing contact phenomena we will take into consideration various approaches to language change such as
• transmission and diffusion, including accommodation
• second language acquisition,
• universal principles of language acquisition and change,
• vernacular universals
• language retention and loss (shift),
• areal contact (Sprachbund)

Participants are expected not only to do the background reading and take part in discussion in the seminar sessions,
but also to be responsible (individually or in a small team) for the presentation and elaboration of one of the topics.

Bibliography

Literature we will draw on includes:

Clyne, M. (2009) Dynamics of Language Contact. Cambridge: CUP.
Filppula, M., J. Klemola, and H. Paulasto (eds.) Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts. London: Routledge
Heine, B and T. Kuteva (2005) Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: CUP.
Hickey, R. (ed.) (2010) The Handbook of Language Contact. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Law, Danny. (2014) Language Contact, Inherited Similarity and Social Difference. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Matras, Yaron (2009) Language Contact. Cambridge: CUP.
Mufwene, S.S. (2008) The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP.
Myers-Scotton, C. (2002) Contact Linguistics: Bilingual Encounters and Grammatical Outcomes. Oxford: OUP.
Schneider, E. (2007) Post-Colonial Englishes. Cambridge: CUP.
Siemund, P. and N. Kintana (eds.) (2008) Language Contact and Contact Languages. Amsteredam: Benjamins.
Thomason, S. (2001) Language Contact - An Introduction. Edinburgh: EUP.
Thomason, S. and T. Kaufman (1988) Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Trudgill, P. (2010) Investigations in Sociohistorical Linguistics: Stories of Colonisation and Contact. Cambridge: CUP.
Weinreich, U. (1963) Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.
Winford, D. (2002) An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.