Prospectus

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Language Contact

Course
2018-2019

Admission requirements

General knowledge of linguistics.

Description

Contact linguistics is the study of the effect of language contact on the forms and structures of languages. In this course, language contact will be studied from a number of perspectives, including an examination of both social and linguistic factors. Some of the topics to be covered are listed below.

  • contact induced change

  • pidginization, creolization, mixed languages

  • borrowing, code-switching, and language mixing

  • language maintenance and language shift

Course objectives

Course objective 1: Evaluating the main objectives and challenges concerning the field of contact linguistics.

Course objective 2: Analyzing existing literature on language contact.

Course objective 3: Strengthening oral presentation skills.

Course objective 4: Doing original analysis of questions and/or data using theories and methods of contact linguistics.

Course objective 5: Strengthening written presentation skills.

Timetable

The timetable is available on the MA Linguistics website

Mode of instruction

Seminar.
The seminar breaks down into two parts. Every two weeks there is a lecture by the teacher introducing a particular field of contact linguistics. The other weeks, students present relevant literature from a reading list, concerning the field introduced in the preceding lecture.

Course Load

  • time spent on attending lectures and seminars: 26 hours

  • time for studying the compulsory literature : 60 hours

  • time for preparing two presentations: 50 hours

  • time for writing a paper based on original research: 144 hours

Assessment Method

Oral presentation based on reading of orginal literature 20%
Term paper, featuring original analysis based on literature and/or on field research 80%

The final grade consists of weighted average of the above component; however, the oral presentation should at least have been graded a “6”.

Resit: students who fail the course may resit the exam and/or course paper.

NOTE: The students’ presence is mandatory; repeated absence can lead to adjustments in the grading or to exclusion from examination and the resit.

Exam Review

Students are entitled to view their marked examination within a period of 30 days, following publication of the results of a written examination.

Blackboard

Course materials will be distributed using Blackboard

Reading list

To be announced during the course.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.

Students other than MA Linguistics need permission from the coordinator of studies before enrolling.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable

Contact

Please contact Student administration van Eyckhof