Universität Wien

122223 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper (2019W)

Scots

11.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 18 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

In the medieval period, until 1603, it can be convincingly claimed that Scots (what linguists nowadays refer to as Middle Scots) was a fully-fledged linguistic system, which functioned quite independently of Middle English, as the language of an independent nation state. Many texts in Middle Scots have survived, included parliamentary as well as municipal documents, and a powerful body of fine poetry, arguably the best between Chaucer and Shakespeare. Middle Scots developed out of northern Anglo-Scandinavian Early Middle English, with which it shared many features, so that for some linguists Middle Scots and Middle English never fully diverged. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, followed by the Union of Parliaments in 1707, Scots underwent a process of asymmetrical convergence with English, with (by now relatively standardized) English gradually becoming the ‘high’ language for all official purposes. Scots remained a vigorous spoken tongue, the vehicle of a rich folk culture. However, in the eighteenth century Scots came to be revived as a literary language and that literary register has been copiously and richly sustained right up to the present day. It was as a literary language that Scots almost certainly gained recognition in 2001 under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Scots accents, however, have retained their separateness of system, accompanying the imported standardised English as well as local dialect or folk speech. For one leading authority, Scots has been “more than a dialect but less than a language”. For another it is a Halbsprache. Thus, in the present-day, some people consider that they still speak some variety of traditional Scots, but which has become influenced or bound up with standard English in written registers and formal spoken discourse situations. For others, it is Scottish English that they both speak and write, albeit to varying degrees with substratal influences from traditional Scots
.
Thus the status of Scots throughout its development and right up to the present day will be a recurrent theme of this seminar. As evidence for its status, a great many literary and also non-literary texts as well as corpora and online material will be used. An abiding theme will be the identification of the languageness or dialecticity of Scots.

  • Thursday 10.10. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 17.10. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 24.10. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 31.10. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 07.11. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 14.11. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 21.11. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Monday 25.11. 14:00 - 16:00 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Thursday 28.11. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 05.12. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 12.12. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 09.01. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 16.01. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 23.01. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Thursday 30.01. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

In the medieval period, until 1603, it can be convincingly claimed that Scots (what linguists nowadays refer to as Middle Scots) was a fully-fledged linguistic system, which functioned quite independently of Middle English, as the language of an independent nation state. Many texts in Middle Scots have survived, included parliamentary as well as municipal documents, and a powerful body of fine poetry, arguably the best between Chaucer and Shakespeare. Middle Scots developed out of northern Anglo-Scandinavian Early Middle English, with which it shared many features, so that for some linguists Middle Scots and Middle English never fully diverged. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, followed by the Union of Parliaments in 1707, Scots underwent a process of asymmetrical convergence with English, with (by now relatively standardized) English gradually becoming the ‘high’ language for all official purposes. Scots remained a vigorous spoken tongue, the vehicle of a rich folk culture. However, in the eighteenth century Scots came to be revived as a literary language and that literary register has been copiously and richly sustained right up to the present day. It was as a literary language that Scots almost certainly gained recognition in 2001 under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Scots accents, however, have retained their separateness of system, accompanying the imported standardised English as well as local dialect or folk speech. For one leading authority, Scots has been “more than a dialect but less than a language”. For another it is a Halbsprache. Thus, in the present-day, some people consider that they still speak some variety of traditional Scots, but which has become influenced or bound up with standard English in written registers and formal spoken discourse situations. For others, it is Scottish English that they both speak and write, albeit to varying degrees with substratal influences from traditional Scots
.
Thus the status of Scots throughout its development and right up to the present day will be a recurrent theme of this seminar. As evidence for its status, a great many literary and also non-literary texts as well as corpora and online material will be used. An abiding theme will be the identification of the languageness or dialecticity of Scots.

Not all possible topics can be covered within the limits of one seminar. After a general Introduction to Scots and Scotland, three topics will become predominant: morpho-syntactic constructions and discourse markers of Scots; the vocabulary of Scots; and the language of the poetry of Robert Burns.

The seminar will look at each topic in depth, using real data, and will be based around extensive weekly homework analysis. These exercises will engage you with Scots as well as prepare you for your choice of topic and its treatment in the BA assignment.

Assessment and permitted materials

The seminar will look at each topic in depth, using real data, and will be based around extensive weekly homework analysis. These exercises will engage you with Scots as well as prepare you for your choice of topic and its treatment in the BA assignment.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

3 presentations (with written material) each worth 15% each
plus
BA assignment arising from one of them worth 55

Examination topics

Reading list

Set Texts
The set books will be _The Edinburgh Companion to Scots_, edited by John Corbett, J. Derrick McClure & Jane Stuart-Smith (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), and Robert McColl Millar, _Modern Scots: An Analytical Survey_ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018). Further reading will be recommended topic by topic. There will be regular home work.

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, BA 612
Code/Modul: UF 4.2.3-222, BA06.2
Lehrinhalt: 12-2222

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:20