Investigating the German language

Abstract

This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file.

As taught in Spring Semester 2010.

This 10 credit module will look at some of the ways in which German has been developing in recent years. In particular, we will look at variation and change in sentence structure; ways in which new modes of communication (such as texting, chat rooms and other forms of internet communication) are influencing language use; and the use of particles (little words like doch, mal, schon, etc.). By the end of the module, you will have carried out a small research project that allows you to compare Germans’ actual language use with what the dictionaries, grammar-books and other reference works say.

Suitable for study at undergraduate level 2.

Dr Nicola McLelland, School of Modern Languages and Culture.

Dr McLelland studied German and French at the University of Sydney, Australia, where, after studying for two years in Bonn, Germany, also gained a PhD in medieval German literature. After an MPhil in linguistics at the University of Cambridge, Dr McLelland developed her current interest in the history of people's ideas and beliefs about language, especially German.

Dr McLelland has three main research areas: i. the history of linguistic ideas, especially the history of German grammar-writing, and the history how German has been presented to English learners of it; ii. contemporary sociolinguistic theory as applied to German and to other Germanic languages; iii. narrative techniques in medieval German literature, especially in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet.