120062 PS Linguistics: Proseminar 2 = Introductory Seminar (2011S)

This course introduces students to core mechanisms of language change and observable patterns in linguistic variation (diachronic and synchronic). Among the mechanisms which will be discussed are, for example, analogy, borrowing, reanalysis, productivity, iconicity, grammaticalization, metaphor, semantic reduction and attrition. It is the aim of this course to investigate these general diachronic processes within a time span of the last two hundred years. Processes of linguistic change can also be observed in the more recent stages of English (including present day American English), which shows how linguistic variation constitutes potential long-term change in the making. In their individual projects, students will identify and analyze one or more mechanisms in the COHA (Corpus of Historical American English) and present their findings in oral presentations as well as in their written papers.