PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: English Corpus Linguistics
Rosa Hesse
Kommentar
In what ways does the use of adorare in Italian differ from the use of adore in English?, Which swear words are most common in the 2010s, and are these different from the 1990s?, What lexical, grammatical and pragmatic options exist in the Bathroom Formula (clauses and phrases expressing speakers’ need to leave any ongoing activity in order to go to the bathroom)?, Which functional changes did the suffix -ish undergo in the course of English language history?, ...
In this seminar, you will apply the concepts learned in Introduction to English Linguistics through the critical reading and evaluation of linguistic research papers that are concerned with questions such as the above ones. You will also conduct your own corpus linguistic research using authentic language data in the form of text corpora (sets of natural language data) to answer your own questions (Which euphemistic and dysphemistic expressions for menstruation are most common in English and German Web corpora?, How does gender, class and age of the speaker affect the frequency and choice of apologies?, ...). To do this, you will learn the basics of a formal query language and how to access databases and search for complex grammatical or lexical patterns. This methodological knowledge will enable you to carry out your own small-scale corpus study and design an academic poster to be presented at a poster session at the end of the semester. This will form the basis of your term paper.
Please bring a laptop to class from week 1 onwards.
16 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung