HISTORY OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE

The course in History of the German Language will be held in German.

Main aims of the course:

1) to boost the knowledge about the history of German from the Middle Age till now.

2) to focus on some main questions about the standardization of the language.

3) to gain relevant knowledge about German syntax, and about some relevant changes occurred to the orthographical standards.

4) to enlarge conceptual understanding and methodological competence about working in German studies and modern research techniques.

5) to be able to critically evaluate current research and advanced research and scholarship in the discipline or area of professional competence.

6) to encourage intellectual independence and practical competence in this research field as well as ethical behaviour consistent with academic integrity and the use of appropriate guidelines and procedures for responsible conduct of research.

7) to sustain the communication of ideas, issues, and conclusions clearly, both through a written essay and an oral examination.

The course will diachronically follow the transformation process from ancient German to modern and contemporary German. It will particularly focus on the difference between oral languages and written languages by critically analyzing the long lasting process of standardization occurred to the German language (section A).

Part of the course will be dedicated to the analysis of texts from different historical periods. The analysis will take different research perspectives into account trying to unfold different layers of the text investigating the origins of these ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text" (section B).

A slection of different texts (section C) will provide the start-up discussion to develop individual research projects (presentation and written papers) that will be evaluated during the final exam.

The project and the research will be guided and followed by the teacher during a part of the course or during office hours (see STUDIUM).

A The transformation process from ancient German language to modern and contemporary German

- Gerhard Wolff, Deutsche Sprachgeschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, UTB, 2009.

B Historical analysis

- Jörg Riecke, Rainer Hünecke, et.al., Einführung in die historische Textanalyse, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004.

C Anthology of Text in German:

A brief collection of texts in German will be available on the web-page of STUDIUM