Department of English BA Option, 3 op /ECTS
Book examination
Today’s English shows many influences of contact between English and other languages. How did this come about, and what kinds of traces of past contact situations can we see in the words and structures of English? The questions related to language contact are of course not restricted to the history and present-day role of English. What, then, are the general principles at work in bi- or multilingual situations the world over, and how can contact situations and their linguistic consequences be analysed?
The set reading of this option discusses various language contacts involving English – past and present – and introduces contact linguistics as a useful framework for language-contact studies.
The prominent themes include, for example, lexical borrowing , language shift , code-switching and language death . The data come from numerous European and other languages as well as
English. NB : This book exam is not available to those students who have already completed the taught ELC course.
Prerequisites: Basic Studies (25 op ) and at least two Core Courses (10 op ) completed.
Set reading: Thomason Sarah G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction . Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press [also published by Georgetown University Press] (246 pp.) and Chapters 3, 4 and 5 (“English and Danish”; “English and French”; “English and Latin”) in Knowles Gerry 1997. A
Cultural History of the English Language . London: Arnold (44 pp.).
Exam structure: Terminology quiz and essay-type questions.
EXAM DATES (2014-15)
Available electronically five times a year (in the
‘tenttiakvaario’): in November, February, April,
June and August – the first 15 days of the month [3 hrs]
REGISTRATION tenttis.utu.fi
TEACHER IN CHARGE
 Dr Janne Skaffari
 Email: janne.skaffari@utu.fi
 Homepage: http:// users.utu.fi/skaffe/
 Tel. 02 333 6692
 Office hour: by appointment