Syllabus
The seminar will take place in January 2017. The exact dates and times are to be specified.
Each unit (e.g. lecture/seminar) will last 45 minutes. There will be 4 units every day for the period of 5 days.
Day 1: Lecture1: Language variation and change (LVC) - introduction
Seminar: Introduction to Praat
Lecture2: Methodology used in LVC
Lecture3: Vocalic changes
Day 2: Seminar1: Analysing vowels - introduction
Seminar2: Front vowel shift
Lecture1: Actuation problem
Lecture2: Embedding problem
Day 3: Lecture1: Consonantal changes in obstruents
Seminar1: Pre-aspiration, glottalisation, and glottalling
Seminar2: Post-aspiration and affrication
Seminar3: dh-stopping
Day 4: Lecture1: Transmission problem: Critical Period Hypothesis
Lecture 2: LVC beyond segments
Seminar 1: Creaky voice
Seminar 2: Creaky voice II
Day 5: Seminar 1: in-class analysis
Seminar 2: in-class analysis
Lecture1: Propagation models
Lecture 2: Social, cognitive, or biological?
Annotation
The module will start with a general introduction to the fields of language variation and change, and phonetics and phonology. In the lectures, we will address theoretical aspects of the field, which will be combined with discussions of the most vigorous changes affecting today’s English accents. In the seminars, we will explore some of the phonetic/phonological variation of the sounds in question and learn how to analyse them.
After taking this module, the student will be able to carry out basic phonetic analyses and have a good overview of those aspects which are the most relevant for the study of English varieties.