This seminar aims to provide an introductory overview of some key issues in contrastive linguistics, a field of linguistics that deals with the synchronic comparison of languages and highlights the structural differences – but also the similarities – between them. In this class, we will focus on the comparison of English and German. However, to enlarge the scope of the seminar, students who speak other languages as well as English and German are particularly welcome. After a short consideration of language typology, we will concentrate on some central branches of linguistics, such as phonology, morphology, semantics, lexicology and syntax, and contrast the English system with the German (and further) one(s). Culturally and socially determined linguistic phenomena will also be discussed, such as (dis)similarities regarding categorization, the use of linguistic politeness, the role of dialects, etc.

Kurs im HIS-LSF