Module QXL-4447:
Language Change

Overview

This module offers a comprehensive examination of language change through various lenses. It starts by exploring historical examples and models of language change, delving into both internal processes such as sound, semantic, and morpho-syntactic changes, and external forces like language contact's consequences on variation, prestige, and attitudes. Further sections delve into specific internal processes like grammaticalization and pragmaticalization, before concluding with an analysis of language use and disuse, including code-switching, diglossia, and language endangerment.

The aims include introducing students to current literature on language change, familiarizing them with sociolinguistic approaches, internal explanations, societal consequences, research skills, and initiating their research projects exploring synchronic or diachronic language change. Topics covered include reasons behind language change, evolutionary frameworks, lexical, semantic, and sound changes, grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, language contact, and outcomes like code-switching, shift, and language death.

Students in this module, depending on assessment topics, research question(s) and methodologies will have to opportunity to utilize the department labs, specialized software and resources, when carry out their assessments. This can include access to and the use of; high-level statistical modelling and analysis software and a wide range of concordance software and specialised corpora for many languages.

1. How & Why Do Languages Change?
2. Language Change in an Evolutionary Framework
3. Language Change – Lexical and semantic
4. Language Change – Sound change
5. Language Change – Transition
6. Language Change – Causation
7. History and Mechanisms of Grammaticalization (Gmx)
8. Pragmaticalization (Pgn) and Discourse Markers (DMs)
9. Language Contact & Language Change
10. Outcomes of language contact: code-switching, shift, and death

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -C: student has achieved the minimum acceptable standard of understanding and/or knowledge in all the LOs -good -B: student has achieved a better-than-average standard of understanding and/or knowledge in all LOs -excellent -A: student has achieved a thorough standard of understanding and/or knowledge in all LOs; or student has demonstrated an exceptional level of achievement in one or more LOs

Learning Outcomes

• Acquiring and accurately utilizing the primary terms, concepts, principles, and the main theories used in the field to describe, explain, and understand language change as a process, or processes, in both diachronic and synchronic contexts.

• Demonstrating and applying the principles and the theoretical frameworks used in the fields Grammaticalization, Pragmaticalization and (inter) subjectivity with respect to language change.

• Deriving and applying theoretical and methodological questions that compare and critique both internal and external factors that are argued to facilitate and / or motivate language change.

• Summarizing, differentiating, accurately employing primary terms, concepts, principles, issues, and consequences on topics such as code-switching, diglossia, language shift, language maintenance, revitalization, morbidity, and death.