Fiche de cours
The Language of Jane Austen
Faculté de gestion: Faculté des lettres
Responsable(s): Anita Auer
Intervenant(s): -
Pas d'horaire défini.
Séminaire
Semestre de printemps
2 heures par semaine
28 heures par semestre
Langue(s) d'enseignement: anglais
Public: Oui
Crédits: 0
Contenu
Jane Austen (1775-1817) lived and wrote at a time, i.e. the Late Modern English period (1700-1900), during which the written (and spoken) English language was codified in spelling books, grammars, and dictionaries. In this course we will be concerned with the precepts found in these normative works and compare them to the actual language usage of Jane Austen, as well as her contemporaries. We will view the historical data through a sociolinguistic lens and discuss language usage (in the form of electronic corpora) from different social layers, notably the elite, the middling sort and the labouring poor. As the Late Modern English period is also crucial for the development of English into a world language, attention will be paid to different emerging varieties of English. All in all, this course will familiarise students with linguistic variation and change as well as codification of English grammar during the period 1700-1900, while also affording the opportunity to work with primary sources, i.e. in the form of grammars, dictionaries and empirical data.
