American English (SHE-III)
Prof. Dr. Barış
Kabak
E-mail: Baris.Kabak@uni-konstanz.de
Course type: Hauptseminar
Course URL: http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/kabak/AmericanEnglish/index.htm
Time: Wednesdays,
16-18:00
Place: R-511
NEWS:
Take-home exam: click here to download.
Old Announcements
1. Change of room for SHE-III on 12/07: R-711
2. To get a final grade, there are 2
options:
Option
1:
Take-home exam, which will be posted here
on 19.07.2006.
Due date: 28.07.2006 by 17:00 pm.
No late exam will be accepted (see Option
2)
More information about the exam will be
provided on 19/07.
Option
2:
A 10-page paper
Due date: 01.09.2006
You need to let me know about what you
will be working on by July 28. Please either come to my office hours, or
e-mail.
3. Important articles and chapters used
for the group presentations we have had so far are listed on the course
webpage. We are in the process of creating a folder for these things, which
will be placed in the Semesterapparat early next
week. You will need some of these chapters and articles in order to do the
take-home exam.
The groups that have presented so far are
welcome to put their lecture notes / handouts on the Semesterapparat,
and you are also welcome to make a photocopy of them. However, for the
take-home exam, I strongly recommend you to refer to the original sources on
which the presentations were mostly based.
3. Room for
Friday (23/06): M-627.
4. Due to the 40th
birthday of our university, SHE-III on 21.06.2006 has been cancelled. Instead,
we will meet on Friday, 23.06.2006. Room: M-627. You are expected to
come to class since attendance will be taken.
5. 23/05: No worksheet for 24/05. You will need to
take down notes while watching Episode 2. We will discuss vowel-related
phenomena in the first half of the class.
6. NEW PLACE FOR
SHE-III: R 511 (except for 21.6.2006 and 12.7.06; Rooms for these dates TBA)
Course Description:
In this course,
we will study the structure and socio-cultural
history of American English (AE) from the colonial period to the present.
Topics include (i) the structure and history of
American English, (ii) regional and social varieties in the USA, (iii) AE
vocabulary, “Americanisms”, slang, loan words, and metaphors, (iv) politeness
and political correctness, (v) language policy and the “English Only” debate.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of Einführung in die Linguistik.
The medium of instruction is English.
Requirements:
To get a Schein
(for 6 ECTS credits ‘Leistungsstufe 2’):
Note: More than two misses cannot be made up. If you must be absent,
contact me, either at the end of class or via email.
Online Course Materials:
Schedule (tentative):
|
Date |
Topic |
|
|
April 25 May 3 |
Introduction;
The History and Rise of American English |
|
|
May 10 |
Regional Varieties
in the |
|
|
May 17 May 24 May 31 |
Social & Ethnic
Varieties in the |
Video: Do
you speak American?
|
|
June 07 June 14 |
Structure of
American English: Phonology, Morphology and Syntax |
|
|
June 21 June 28 |
American
English Vocabulary and Metaphors |
|
|
July 05 July 12 |
Style, Spoken
Interaction, Politeness, and Political Correctness |
|
|
July 19 July 26 |
Language
Politics in the |
|
|
July 28 |
TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE Click here
to download the exam |
|
Literature: The readings will primarily be drawn from
the following sources. All are
available on the library reserve shelf (Semesterapparat)
for Kabak.
Fun to read:
Literature related
to the group presentations:
GROUP 1
Chapter Topic: Spelling
Conventions and the Phonology of American English
Tottie, G. 2002. American English: Chapter 1 “Writing It and Saying It”.
Research Topic:
Wells, J.C. 1982. Accents
of English 3; Beyond the
GROUP 2
Chapter Topic: The
Morphology and Syntax of American English
Tottie, G. 2002. American English: Chapter 7 “The Grammar of American English”.
Research Topic: African
American English Vernacular
Mufwene S. S. et. al. (Eds.). 1998. African
American English.
Chapter 2 “Aspect
and predicate phrases in African-American vernacular English”
Chapter 4 “Some
aspects of African-American vernacular English phonology”
Chapter 7 “Word
form the hood: the lexicon of African-American vernacular English”
GROUP 3
Chapter Topic: American
English Vocabulary and Metaphors
Tottie, G. 2002. American English: Chapter 5 “American English Vocabulary: A
Systematic View”
Research Topic: Proper
and Place names in
Mencken, H. L.
1949. The American
Language. Chapter 10 “Proper Names in
Holt, A. H. 1938.
GROUP 4
Tottie, G. 2002. American English: Chapter 6 “Caught
Out or Caught Off Base? Metaphors
in American English”
Bryson,
B. 2001. Made in
GROUP 5
Chapter Topic: Style
and Spoken Interaction
Wolfram,
W. & N. Shilling-Estes. 1998. American English:
Chapter 8 “Dialects and Style”
Research
Topic: Discourse markers: American and
British English compared
Biber et al. (Eds).
1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and
Written English: Chapter 14 (Section E) “The Grammar of Conversation”,
GROUP 6
Chapter
Topic: Politeness, and Political Correctness
Tottie, 2002. American
English: Chapter 8 “Using English in the
Research
Topic: American Slang
Partridge, E. 1970. Slang
Today and Yesterday: Part IV “American Slang”
GROUP 7
Chapter Topic: Language
and Education in the
Wolfram,
W. & N. Shilling-Estes. 1998. American English:
Chapter 10.4 “Teaching Standard English” & Chapter 11 “Dialect Awareness in
the School and Community” in
Research
Topic: Ocracoke English
Wolfram, W. 1996. Dialect Change and Maintenance in a Post-Insular
Wolfram, W. 1995. Moribund Dialects and the Endangerment Canon: The Case of the Ocracoke. Journal of the Linguistic Society
of
GROUP 8
Chapter Topic: Language Policy in the
Tottie, G. 2002. American English: Chapter 10 “Language Politics in the
Research
Topic: Ebonics Controversy (to be completed)
Internet resources:
1. The website of
“Do you Speak American?”: http://www.pbs.org/speak/
3. Sound samples spoken by English
speakers all around the world: The Audio Archive of the alt.usage.english
newsgroup: http://www.alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml
4. Information about African American
Vernacular English, as well as other varieties: Varieties of English maintained
by the Language Samples project: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/%7Elsp/
5. The International Dialects of English
Archive for more sound files: http://www.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/mississippi/mississippi.htm
Oral
presentations:
Each group (consisting of 6-8 people,
depending on the total number of students) will present the summary and main
points of the assigned reading(s) plus an extra topic (see the schedule above)
on which they need to do further research. Make sure your presentation is
well-prepared, well-organized, and interesting. You are expected to use
available multi-media sources (PowerPoint, videos, sound files, etc.) as part of
your presentation. Sound files are essential especially if your topic is
related to accents and phonology. Before the presentation (ideally 2 weeks in
advance), you are expected to come and talk to me for ideas, references, and
resources, etc.
Note: Each member of the group is
responsible for the whole presentation. If you feel that some member is not
doing his/her share, please let me know.
Groups, group members, and the presentation
schedule:
Group 1 (June 7): Carroll, Borst, Breuing, Bühl, Gehrmann, Haumann
Group 2 (June 14): Sulger,
Kazmaier, Baumann, Ley, Wehrwein, Schönhuber
Group 3 (June 21): Kiesel,
Schneider, Pennig, Zimmerer,
Giger, Krapf, Wegele, Gunter
Group 4 (June 28): Wiehl,
Müller, Waldau, Donges, Randhawa, Aigner, Steidle
Group 5 (July 5): Wolbat,
Schultz, Dachert, Hoepp, Antunovic, Petzi, Ellrott
Group 6 (July 12): Schuhmacher,
Vogel, Pongratz, Wölcken, Eren, Schulmeister, Kröner
Group 7 (July 19): Hellwig,
Galts, Glück, Klein, Reckziegel, Gwinner, Haecker, Rud
Group 8 (July 26): Eichhorn,
Elfe, Forrest, Wiefel, Polgar, Gedamke, Leuze, Jerg