Moodle

This course deals with word structure and morphological processes in natural languages. We will look at a number of controversial issues in morphology, including the status of select inflectional and derivational morphemes in English.

This course deals with a number of applied topics in linguistics. 

In Listening to English, we will listen to a number of standard and non-standard English accents from native and non-native speakers. Texts come from a range of sources including interviews, podcasts and books. Emphasis will be on recognizing common features of spoken English, including linking and intonation patterns. We will also discuss compensatory strategies that can be used when unknown vocabulary appears or when listening conditions are not optimal. Students are encouraged to keep a “Listening Log” to track their progress in understanding spoken English.

This tutorial is linked to the Vorlesung English Phonetics and Phonology and I will assume that you have taken this class already. We will put the theory taught in the Vorlesung into practice. There is a particular focus on the segmental features of English, especially sounds which are particularly difficult for German native speakers. We will also work on reading phonemically transcribed English texts. This class is combined with Listening to English--make sure you are registered for that in Moodle too.

In this course you will get a theoretical overview of the phonetics and phonology of English in comparison to German. The practical application of this overview will come in the accompanying tutorials. We will compare Standard American English (Midwest American English) and Standard British English (BBC English) to Standard German (High German). We will discuss segmental differences (at the individual sound level) and suprasegmental differences (at the connected speech level). By the end of the course, you will be able to describe these differences using linguistic terminology and you will be able to recognize and transcribe English sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Here we will review the fundamental aspects of writing in English and tackle some more complicated issues including how to avoid wordiness, how to eschew obfuscation (in vocabulary and syntax) and pragmatic and discourse aspects of writing in English, as these differ very much in German and English writing.

A number of fundamental areas in linguistics will be explored including: functions and properties of language, phonology, semantics, pragmatics and language variation. The concepts covered in this course will be built upon in other courses, including Proseminars and Hauptseminars.