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Duration
Identical coursesEnglish Linguistics: Linguistic and Social Determinants of Variation in English (B-KUL-F0YI9A)
Aims
The seminar aims (1) to familiarize students with the variationist methodology, which is needed to explore the determinants of variation, (2) to discuss a representative selection of grammatical and phonological variation phenomena, and (3) to help students acquire and/or improve skills necessary to create a variationist dataset and to interpret quantitative distributional patterns.
Previous knowledge
The students should have a solid linguistics background enabling them to describe and analyze grammatical and phonological structures and phenomena. Students should also bring along a willingness to engage with the empirical and quantitative analysis of linguistic data.
Is included in these courses of study
- Master in de taalkunde (Leuven) 60 ects.
- Master in de taal- en letterkunde (Leuven) 60 ects.
- Master of English Linguistics and Literature (Leuven) 60 ects.
- Courses for Exchange Students Faculty of Arts (Leuven)
- Master in de taal- en letterkunde: verkort programma derde taal (Leuven) (Taalmodule Engels) 30 ects.
- Educatieve master in de talen (Leuven) 120 ects.
Activities
6 ects. English Linguistics: Linguistic and Social Determinants of Variation in English (B-KUL-F0YI9a)
Content
Variation is pervasive in human language. In this seminar, we will be concerned with variation phenomena in English that provide language users with two or more different ways of saying the same thing. Consider, for example, variation between complementizer retention or omission, as in I think that Tom is a linguist versus I think ___ Tom is a linguist. Crucially, variation between the two variants is not free but constrained by a number of language-internal factors (for example, long complement clauses favor retention) as well as by social factors (for example, informal speech styles favor omission). We will discuss various such determinants, based on a number of phonological and grammatical variation phenomena.
Course material
Readings and materials will be made available on Toledo.
Evaluation
Evaluation: English Linguistics: Linguistic and Social Determinants of Variation in English (B-KUL-F2YI9a)
Explanation
Students will conduct a research project in which they analyze a variation phenomenon of their choice, based on data from text corpora and/or experiments. Students work on the project in groups of two or three. The project will be presented in class in a 15-minute presentation, and written up in paper form (15-20 pages). Both components, presentation (30%) and paper (70%), will be graded separately.
Information about retaking exams
Assessment on the basis of a paper (100%).