Since October 2010

Chair of English Linguistics with a focus on synchronic English linguistics, Heidelberg University, Department of English

2008-2010

Temporary Professorship of English Linguistics W3 (Vacancy), Department of English, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
and
April 2008 – February 2009 Guest Professor in English Linguistics at Saarland University in Saarbrücken

2004-April 2008

Lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Oberassistentin, C2), Department of English, Freie Universität Berlin

2004

(April – September) Temporary Professorship of English Linguistics C4 (Vacancy), Department of English, Universität Leipzig

2003-2004

Teaching Assignment at the University of Rostock

1999-2003

Temporary Professorship of English Linguistics C4 (Vacancy), Department of English, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

1999

Habilitation in English Linguistics Thesis: „Schematische und proto­typische Bedeutungen infiniter Komple­mentstrukturen des Englischen. Eine kognitive Ana­lyse"

1996

Study visit at the University of San Diego (Prof. Ronald Langacker)

1993-1994

Teaching assignment at the University of Reading (Department of German)

1987

Dr. phil. in English Linguistics
Thesis: „Gerundiale Nominalisie­rungen als Aus­drucksmittel für Bedingungs­zu­sammenhänge im Englischen"

1985-1999

Staff member of the Institute of English and American Studies University of Rostock (Chair Prof. Dr. Rolf Berndt and Prof. Dr. Friedrich Ungerer)

1981-1985

Research student in English Linguistics, University of Rostock

1981

Diploma thesis in English Linguistics
Degree in Teaching (First Staats­examen) English & German

1977-1981

University of Rostock, student

1977

Abitur (A-levels)

Date of birth

20 August 1958

Monographs and edited volumes

• Bös, Birte; Kleinke, Sonja; Mollin, Sandra and Hernández, Nuria (Eds.) (2018), The Discursive Construction of Identities in Online and Offline Contexts: personal-group-collective. In: Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.78
• Johansson, Marjut; Kleinke, Sonja and Lethi, Lotta (Eds.) (2017), Discourse, Context and Media, 19 (Special issue The Digital Agora of Social Media).
• Polzenhagen, Frank, Kövecses, Zoltán; Vogelbacher Stefanie and Kleinke, Sonja (Eds.) (2014), Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
• Kleinke, Sonja; Kövecses, Zoltán; Musolff, Andreas and Veronika Szelid (Eds.) (2012), Cognition and Culture. Budapest: Eötvös University Press.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2002), Englische Komplementstrukturen. Schematische und prototypische Bedeu­tungen. Peter Lang AG. Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften. Frankfurt am Main u. a.
• Kleinke, Sonja (1987), Gerundiale Nominalisierungen als Ausdrucksmittel für Bedin­gungszusammenhänge im Englischen. Dissertation. Rostock.

Articles

• Kleinke, Sonja and Landmann, Julia (2021), "Cross-Cultural Observations on English and German Wikipedia Entries at the Interface of Convergence and Controversy." In: Johansson, Marjut; Tanskanen, Sanna-Kaisa and Jan Cho­va­nec (Eds.): Analyzing Digital Discourses. Between Convergence and Controversy. Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature Switzerland. 135–162.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2021), "Constructing dementia in discourse." Journal of Inter­actional Research in Communication Disorders: Vol. 12 No. 2 (2021): 234–259.
• Davis, B. H., Maclagan, M., Pope, C., Bös, B., Schneider, C., & Kleinke, S. (2021). Introduction to section on dementia. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 12(2), 183–184.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2020), "Wikipedia: quotations at the interface of encyclopedic and participatory practices", in Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 157, 119-130.
• Kleinke, S., "Wissenskommunikation in Internetforen." Beckers, K.; Wassermann, M. (Hg.): Wissenskommunikation im Web: Sprachwissenschaftliche Perspektiven und Analysen (Transferwissenschaften, Band 11). Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa: Peter Lang, 2020, 85-102.
• Kleinke, S.; Schultz, J., "Ist 'Nation,' gleich 'nation'? Zwei Wikipedia-Artikel im Sprach- und Kulturvergleich." Diskurse – Digital 1 (2019), 62-97.
• Kleinke, Sonja; Hernández, Nuria and Bös, Birte (2018), Introduction: Identity construction in complex discourse contexts, in: Bös, Birte; Kleinke, Sonja; Mollin, Sandra and Hernández, Nuria (Eds.): The Discursive Construction of Identities in Online and Offline Contexts: personal-group-collective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1-12.
• Kleinke, Sonja and Bös, Birte (2018), Indeterminate us and them – The complexities of referentiality, identity and group construction in a public online discussion, in Bös, Birte; Kleinke, Sonja; Mollin, Sandra and Hernández, Nuria (Eds.): The Discursive Construction of Identities in Online and Offline Contexts: personal-group-collective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 153-176.
• Johansson, Marjut; Kleinke, Sonja and Lethi, Lotta (2017), The digital agora of social media: Introduction, in: Johansson, Marjut; Kleinke, Sonja and Lethi, Lotta (Eds.): Discourse, Context and Media, 19 (Special issue The Digital Agora of Social Media): 1-4.
• Kleinke, Sonja and Avcu, Elif (2017), Public discourse beyond the mainstream media: Intercultural conflict in socio-political discussion fora, in: Johansson, Marjut; Kleinke, Sonja and Lethi, Lotta (Eds.): Discourse, Context and Media, 19 (Special issue The Digital Agora of Social Media): 49-57.
• Bös, Birte and Kleinke, Sonja (2017), Publicness and privateness, in: Hoffmann, Christian and Bublitz, Wolfram (Eds.): Pragmatics of Social Media. (Handbooks of Pragmatics, 11). Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter Mouton, 83−121.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2017), Dr. Google: Chancen und Probleme von Patienteninformationen aus dem Internet im linguistischen Fokus, in: Bechmann, Sascha (Hg.): Sprache und Medizin: Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zur medizinischen Sprache und Kommunikation. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 239-264.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2015), Internetforen: Laiendiskurs Gesundheit, in: v. Busch, Albert and Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas (Eds.): Handbuch Sprache in der Medizin. Berlin: de Gruyter, 405-422.
• Bös, Birte and Kleinke, Sonja (2015), The complexities of thread-internal quoting in English and German online discussion fora, in: Bublitz, Wolfram; Arendholz, Jenny and Kirner, Monika (Eds.): The Pragmatics of Quoting Now and Then. Leiden: Brill, 71-96.
• Kleinke, Sonja and Bös, Birte (2015), Intergroup Rudeness and the Metapragmatics of its Negotiation in Online Discussion Fora, Pragmatics, 25 (1): 47-71.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2014), Kohärenz und Metonymie: Zitierpraktiken in öffentlichen Internetdiskussionsforen, in: Polzenhagen, Frank et al. (Eds.): Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 239-256.
• Kleinke Sonja (2012), Metonymic Inferencing and Metonymic Elaboration in Quotations: Creating Coherence in a Public Internet Discussion Forum, in Kleinke, Sonja; Kövecses, Zoltán; Musolff, Andreas and Veronika Szelid (Eds.): Cognition and Culture. Budapest: Eötvös University Press, 87-98.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2012), Responses to Rhetorical Questions in English and German Internet Public News Groups, Functions of Language, 19 (2): 174-200.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2010), Interactive Aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication – 'Disagreement’ in an English and a German Public News Group, in: Tanskanen, Sanna-Kaisa; Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa; Johansson, Marjut and Raitaniemi, Mia (Eds.): Discourses in Interaction, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 195-222.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2010), Speaker Activity and Grice’s Maxims of Conversation at the Interface of Pragmatics and Cognitive Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, 42: 3345-3366.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2008a): Zur sprachlichen Gestaltung deutscher und englischer Diskus­sionsbeiträge in den öffentlichen Internetforen BBC-TALK und SPIEGEL ONLINE, in: Fuchs, Volker and Störl, Kerstin (Eds.): Stil ist überall, aber wie bekomme ich ihn zu fassen? Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 101-118.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2008b), Emotional Commitment in Public Political Internet Messageboards, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 27 (4): 409-421.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2008c): Repair Strategies in English Message Board Communication. Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL). 2.2008: 73-102.
• Fuchs, Volker; Kleinke, Sonja and Störl, Kerstin (2008): Stil: Kreativität – Variation – Komparation. Vorwort zur Eröffnung einer neuen Reihe, in: Fuchs, Volker and Störl, Kerstin (Eds.): Stil ist überall, aber wie bekomme ich ihn zu fassen? Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 7-9.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2007), Sprachliche Strategien verbaler Ablehnung in öffentlichen Diskussions­foren des Internets, in: Herrmann, Steffen K.; Krämer, Sybille and Kuch, Hannes (Eds.): Verletzende Worte. Die Grammatik sprachlicher Missachtung. Bielefeld: transcript, 311-336.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2003), Geschlechtsrelevante Aspekte sprachlicher Unhöflichkeit im Internet, in: Hilbig, Antje; Kajatin, Claudia and Miethe, Ingrid (Eds.): Frauen und Gewalt: Interdisziplinäre Untersuchungen zu geschlechtsgebundener Gewalt in Theorie und Praxis, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 197–213.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2001), Schematic Meaning and Family Resemblance in Non-Finite Complement Constructions: A Cognitive Approach, in: Lucko, Peter and Schlaeger, Jürgen (Eds.): Anglistentag 2000, Berlin: Proceedings of the Conference of the German Association of University Teachers of English. Volume XXII., Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 455–465.
• Kleinke, Sonja (2000), Woman and Headline-Policy in German and English Local Daily Newspapers, in: Ungerer, Frie­drich (Ed.): Media Texts Past and Present. Language and Textual Structure, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 67–84.
• Kleinke, Sonja (1998a), To-Infinitive-Konstruktionen im Ensemble englischer Komple­ment­struk­turen. Eine kog­nitive Analyse, in: Ungerer, Friedrich (Ed.): Kognitive Lexikologie und Syntax. Rostocker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Heft 5, 147–168.
• Kleinke, Sonja (1998b), The Way They Talk: On the Linguistic Representation of Women and Men in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Andrew Vachss's Shella, in: Klaus, Gustav H. and Knight, Stephen (Eds.): The Art of Murder. New Essays on Detective Fiction, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 108–125.
• Kleinke, Sonja (1997), 'Sie ist kein Weib, sie ist eine Jungpionierin': Geschlechtstypische Un­terschiede in der Kommunikation von Jungen und Mädchen in DDR-Kin­derbüchern, in: Braun, Friederike and Pasero, Ursula (Eds.): Commu­nication of Gender - Kommunikation von Geschlecht. Zentrum für Inter­disziplinäre Frauenfor­schung der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel. ZIF 4, Kiel, 183–199.

• Report Colloquium 2019.
• 7th international symposium "Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy" (June 2016)
  

  On June 24, 2016, we (Prof. Dr. Sonja Kleinke, PD Dr. Frank Polzenhagen, doctoral student Stefanie Vogelbacher and the three students Svenja Ritter, Britta Dittkrist and Astrid Fiedler) continued a long-standing tradition between the AS and the doctoral programme on “Cultural Linguistics” at Eötvös Loránd University by attending the 7th international symposium "Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy" hosted by Prof. Dr. Zoltán Kövecses and his doctoral students in Budapest.

  The conference was divided into four sections, each of which was introduced by a plenary talk. Frank Polzenhagen opened the conference with a talk on matrimonials in anglophone Indian newspapers, Sonja Kleinke analysed indeterminate “they” in public internet discussions and Zoltán Kövecses elaborated on the relationship between conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory. Finally, we had the pleasure of hearing a fourth plenary talk by the renowned psycholinguist and cognitive scientist Prof. Dr. Raymond Gibbs from the University of California, who discussed current empirical challenges for cognitive linguists. Students from both Budapest and Heidelberg contributed a total of twelve interesting talks on their work in progress. Their topics included Hungarian identity formation, political discourses from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, cultural models and Hungarian colour terms. The symposium provided a unique perspective on current cognitive linguistic research. The contributions were accompanied by lively discussions, which continued in a relaxed atmosphere over dinner. The day after the conference was reserved for a social and cultural program, during which we had the opportunity to delve further into the conference topics, socialise with our hosts and learn about Budapest's history and sights on a city tour guided by Prof. Kövecses and his PhD students.

  We thank Prof. Kövecses and the conference organisers Laura Ambrus, Ren Imai and Anna Sobczak for their great work and warm welcome and look forward to future collaborations between Heidelberg and ELTE.

  Selected contributions to earlier conferences held in the framework of the annual symposium entered two book publications:

  Frank Polzenhagen, Zoltán Kövecses, Stefanie Vogelbacher & Sonja Kleinke (eds.). 2014. Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy. Frankfurt (Main): Peter Lang

  Sonja Kleinke, Zoltán Kövecses, Andreas Musolff & Veronika Szelid (eds.). 2012. Cognition and Culture: The Role of Metaphor and Metonymy. Budapest: EÖTVÖS University Press

  
  
• Metaphernkolloquium 2015
  

  Am Dienstag, 2.6.2015, fand am Anglistischen Seminar, mittlerweile zum 6. Mal, das Symposium "Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor - Metaphern kognitiv" statt. Das ganztägige Symposium begann um 9:45 Uhr. Den Eröffnungsvortrag hielt Prof. Zoltán Kövecses (Eötvös Loránd Universität Budapest) zum Thema ""Where metaphors come from". Weitere Beiträge kamen von Heidelberger Dozenten, Gästen aus dem Budapester Doktorandenprogramm "Cultural Linguistics" und, der Grundidee dieser Veranstaltung folgend, von Studierenden, Absolventen und Doktoranden des Anglistischen Seminars. Im Rahmen des Symposiums fand des Weiteren eine Poster-Session statt, auf der Studierende am AS ihre Arbeiten vorstellen.

  Erstmals wurde das Symposium begleitet von einem zweiteiligen Workshop-Tag am Mittwoch, den 3.6. Vormittags (10:00 – 13:00) stand hier ein Workshop mit Achim Hescher (Landau) zu "Metaphor and the Graphic Novel" auf dem Programm, gefolgt von einem Workshop und einer Diskussionsrunde am Nachmittag zu "Metaphor and discourse" mit Zoltán Kövecses (14:30 – 17:30). Das detaillierte Programm des Metaphernkolloquiums finden Sie hier.

  
  
• HS "Practical Explorations into Cognitive Metaphor and Metonymy"
  

  Im Wintersemester 2013/2014 hatten Studierende des Anglistischen Seminars ein weiteres Mal die Möglichkeit, ihr Wissen über kognitive Metaphern und Metonymien zu vertiefen. In dem von Prof. Zoltán Kövecses und Prof. Sonja Kleinke geleiteten Seminar wurden von den Studierenden eigene Forschungsprojekte in den Bereichen Metaphor and Culture, Metaphor and Emotion, Metaphor in Political Discourse, Metaphor in Health and Illness erarbeitet. Auf Einladung des English Department der Eötvös Loránd Universität Budapest haben Studierende die Möglichkeit, im Rahmen der Sommerexkursion im Juni 2014 ihre Forschungsergebnisse in einer Poster Session zu präsentieren und an der internationalen Konferenz Cognitive Explorations Into Metaphor and Metonymy VI - Metaphor, Discourse and Context teilzunehmen. Mit Charlotte Rupprecht (2. Semester des MA-Studiums der Anglistik an der Universität Heidelberg) und Magdalena Borowik (2. Jahr der M.A. Angewandten Linguistik an der Universität Warschau) nehmen zwei Teilnehmerinnen des HS im Mai an der Konferenz „Political Linguistics III. (Re)construing nationhood in ‘(un)doing Europe’ today?” am Institut für Angewandte Linguistik der Universität Warschau teil. Sie präsentieren dort das aus der Kursarbeit hervorgegangene gemeinsame Forschungsprojekt “On the Trawlers, Big Fish and Dolphins – Metaphors and Metonymies in the so-called ‘Spying Debate’. The American and German Perspectives”. Das Anglistische Seminar hofft, die außerordentlich fruchtbringende Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Kövecses fortführen zu können.

  
  
• Summer Excursion to Budapest - Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy
  

  Detailed information (pdf)

  
  
• Symposium on the Linguistic Construction of Personal and Group Identity
  

  From September 26th to 28th we were hosting an international symposium on linguistic identity construction. Fur further information see here.

  
  
• Metaphernkolloquium 2013
  

  The 5th international workshop "Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor - Metaphern kognitiv" took place at the English Department on June 7, 2013. The event was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). To learn more about the event and this year’s contributions, read this report.

  Report - Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor – Metaphern Kognitiv 5

• Cognitive Linguistics
• Interactional Pragmatics
• Internet Communication
• Linguistic Gender Studies

Projektteam:
Prof. Dr. Sonja Kleinke
Katrin Strobel, M.A.

Hilfskräfte
Mayte Dächer
Marius Emmerich
Franziska Saur
Carmen Simon, M.A.

Partner
Lehrstuhl Prof. Dr. Böhn
Institut für Germanistik: Literatur, Sprache, Medien
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Weiterführende Informationen zum Projekt finden Sie hier.

• 4 dissertations (in progress, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)
• About 100 thesis projects (Magisterarbeiten, Lehramt, BA-Arbeiten)

Linguistic Pragmatics; Contrastive Linguistics; Fundamentals of English Grammar; Linguistics in the 20th century; Lexicology and Word-Formation, Semantics, Introduction to Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics; Metaphor and Metonymy in Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics, Linguistic Politeness, Contrastive Linguistics: English and German; Semantics, English Syntax and Verb Complementation; Linguistic Gender Studies; Gender in Public Discourse; 1st and 2nd Language Acquisition

An Introduction to Linguistic Pragmatics; Linguistic Politeness; Speech Acts and Modality; Words and Their Meanings - English Lexicology and Word-Formation; Contrastive Linguistics; American, Australian and British English Contrasted; Functional Varieties of English; Complex Sentences and Syntactic analysis; Complementation of Verbs, Adjectives and Nouns; Practical Explorations into Syntax: Clause, Sentence, Text - Their Structure and Function; Selected Problems of Spoken and Written English Grammar - a corpus-based communicative functional approach; Syntactic Models and Syntactic analysis

Introductions to linguistics, exam preparation courses, research colloquia

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Diese Vorlesung mit Begleittutorien soll in den wissenschaftlichen Umgang mit Sprache einführen, eine Vorstellung von der Komplexität des Gebietes der Sprachwissenschaft vermitteln und die Grundlagen schaffen für die Behandlung spezieller sprachwissenschaftlicher Fragestellungen in den weiterführenden Pro- und Hauptseminaren.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

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Hauptseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Linguistic Gender Studies

• Thursday 14:15 – 15:45 2hrs.

Linguistic sexism and language reform as well as the communicative behaviour of women and men have been in the focus of linguistic gender studies for four decades now. The course will deal with both aspects. At first we will look at the history of linguistic gender studies (ranging from the debate on linguistic sexism in the 1970s to the notion of ‘constructed gender’ in the 1990s) and deal with the development of feminist language critique, language reform and feminist language policy. Part 2 moves on to the analysis and description of the communicative styles of women and men. How can communicative styles be studied empirically? A range of studies focusing on gender-related aspects of language use in private and public, same- and mixed-sex conversation will be dealt with. In doing so, we will cover some basic approaches to the interpretation of empirical data (language and communicative style as a deficit, language and dominance, different cultures, and the linguistic construction of gender). The course will be rounded off with a brief look into the development of gendered linguistic identities in children and adolescents and recent trends in educational policy. Texts: Recommended introductory reading: Holmes, J. and M. Meyerhoff (2003): “Different Voices, Different Views: An Introduction to Current Research in Language and Gender”. In: Holmes, J. and M. Meyerhoff (eds.): The Handbook of Language and Gender. Malden Mass et al. 1-18. A detailed list of topics for term papers and a detailed reading list will be provided in the first session of the course.

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Exam Colloquium

• Thursday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen könnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelöst. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung.

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Research Colloquium

• Wednesday 18:15 – 19:45 2hrs.

This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. This semester, the course will be held as a joint course between Prof. Kövecses (technically linked to his HS 'Practical explorations into cognitive metaphor and metonymy') and myself to account for students who have attended Prof. Kövecses's classes and want to write their final thesis in the area of cognitive metaphor and metonymy.

Texts: N.B.: A detailed seminar plan and how the courses will be linked technically will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail.

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Diese Vorlesung mit Begleittutorien soll in den wissenschaftlichen Umgang mit Sprache einführen, eine Vorstellung von der Komplexität des Gebietes der Sprachwissenschaft vermitteln und die Grundlagen schaffen für die Behandlung spezieller sprachwissenschaftlicher Fragestellungen in den weiterführenden Pro- und Hauptseminaren.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

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Hauptseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Linguistic (Im-)Politeness on- and off-line

• Tuesday 16:15 – 17:45 2hrs.

Focusing on the concept of linguistic politeness, this course will introduce central pragmatic models of politeness (Leech, Brown and Levinson, and Watts) and their application to linguistic rudeness. With these models as a theoretical basis, we will discuss a broad range of empirical studies that cover relevant linguistic strategies speakers use in on- and off-line contexts, including traditional politeness categories, such as different types of Face-Threatening Acts and their mitigation, and strategies used in the discursive construction of (im-)politeness, which are often studied from a contrastive perspective. There are two questions we will be dealing with throughout the course: first, how context shapes interlocutors’ construction and perception of (im-)politeness in ongoing interaction, and second, how politeness categories can be operationalised for linguistic research. A list of topics for term papers, a reading list and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

Texts: Recommended Reading: Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 1).

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Exam Colloquium

• Thursday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

This course is for advanced students and students preparing for their final exams (Staatsexamen or Magister exam). Its aim is to help students decide on exam topics and provide them with an overview of sub-disciplines and research areas in linguistics. Participants are expected to formulate questions and prepare exercises for each session.

Text: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung.

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Research Colloquium

• Wednesday 18:15 – 19:45 2hrs.

This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. This semester, the course will be held as a joint course between Prof. Kövecses (technically linked to his HS 'Practical explorations into cognitive metaphor and metonymy') and myself to account for students who have attended Prof. Kövecses's classes and want to write their final thesis in the area of cognitive metaphor and metonymy.

Texts: N.B.: A detailed seminar plan and how the courses will be linked technically will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail.

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 HS I 2hrs.

The aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the main ideas and concepts in English linguistics. We will start off by considering what language and linguistics are, look at key concepts in semiotics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and major principles of language change. There will be an accompanying compulsory tutorial taught by advanced students where the basic tools and techniques linguists require for their trade are presented, the main issues treated in the lecture will be repeated and applied in practical exercises.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Pätzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge.
• Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Hauptseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Computer-Mediated Discourse

• Wednesday 14:15 – 15:45 2hrs.

The development of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has radically changed our interactional practices during the last thirty years. This course focuses on how linguists come to terms with this new type of discourse. We will look at linguistic descriptions of different types of computer-mediated interaction (E-Mail, public forum discussions, chat-communication, blogging, etc.) and discuss their structural characteristics and typical interactional techniques and practices. Against this background, participants will carry out their own small-scale practical empirical research. The course will be organised as a workshop. Participants will work in groups and each participant is expected to present a short practical research paper for discussion in class. A detailed list of topics for term papers and a detailed reading list as well as further details on how the course is organized will be provided in the first session.

Texts: Recommended for introductory reading: Crystal, David. 2006. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1.

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Vorlesung moderne Sprachwissenschaft
Contrastive Linguistics

• Tuesday 16:15 – 17:45 2hrs.

English and German show large areas of agreement, but also important differences future teachers of English should be aware of. In the first part of this seminar we will explore the traditional approach to contrastive linguistics, which was closely linked with the development of teaching English as a foreign language. Later on we will look into differences and commonalities between English and German against the background of the languages of the world. From a typological point of view we will pinpoint clusters of differences in grammar (inflection, word order, non-finite forms, tenses, passives, etc.), sentence meaning and the semantic structure of the lexicon. Finally we will move on to some pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects including politeness strategies, sexist prejudices and the representation of gender in both language systems.

Texts: Recommended introductory reading: Mair, Christian.1995. Englisch für Anglisten. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. Chapter 1. König, Ekkehard, Gast, Volker. 2007. Understanding English - German contrasts. Berlin: Schmidt. Chapter 1.

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Colloquium for exam candidates

• Tuesday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung.

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Research Colloquium

• Wednesday 18:15 – 19:45 2hrs.

This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. This semester, the course will be held as a joint course between Prof. Kövecses (technically linked to his HS 'Practical explorations into cognitive metaphor and metonymy') and myself to account for students who have attended Prof. Kövecses's classes and want to write their final thesis in the area of cognitive metaphor and metonymy.

Texts: N.B.: A detailed seminar plan and how the courses will be linked technically will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail.

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Diese Vorlesung mit Begleittutorien soll in den wissenschaftlichen Umgang mit Sprache einführen, eine Vorstellung von der Komplexität des Gebietes der Sprachwissenschaft vermitteln und die Grundlagen schaffen für die Behandlung spezieller sprachwissenschaftlicher Fragestellungen in den weiterführenden Pro- und Hauptseminaren.

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Pätzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge.
• Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Vorlesung moderne Sprachwissenschaft
Semantics

• Tuesday 14:15 – 15:45 2hrs.

This lecture course is mainly directed at BA-students. The first part of the course will be devoted to how semantics links up with other fields of linguistics and how the concept of linguistic meaning has been defined in different linguistic schools of thought. Later on, the lecture will move on to units of semantic description such as the word and the sentence and look at the linguistic toolkit used in their analysis. The topic will be approached from the perspective of different frameworks of semantic description including structuralism, truth conditional semantics, frame semantics and cognitive semantics.

Texts: Recommended introductory reading: Watts, Richard J (2003). Politeness. Cambridge. Chapter 1.

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Colloquium for exam candidates

• Thursday 11:15 – 12:45 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung.

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Research Colloquium

• Wednesday 18:15 – 19:45 2hrs.

This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. This semester, the course will be held as a joint course between Prof. Kövecses (technically linked to his HS 'Practical explorations into cognitive metaphor and metonymy') and myself to account for students who have attended Prof. Kövecses's classes and want to write their final thesis in the area of cognitive metaphor and metonymy.

Texts: N.B.: A detailed seminar plan and how the courses will be linked technically will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail.

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 HS I 2hrs.

The aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the main ideas and concepts in English linguistics. We will start off by considering what language and linguistics are, look at key concepts in semiotics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and major principles of language change. There will be an accompanying compulsory tutorial taught by advanced students where the basic tools and techniques linguists require for their trade are presented, the main issues treated in the lecture will be repeated and applied in practical exercises.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Pätzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge.
• Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Proseminar II Sprachwissenschaft
Linguistic Politeness

• Thursday 09:15 – 10:45 115 2hrs.

Our discussion will start out from the pragmatic background of politeness, a brief introduction into central pragmatic models of politeness (Leech, Brown and Levinson and Watts) and their application to linguistic rudeness. Starting from these central theories, we will discuss a broad range of empirical studies on politeness-sensitive phenomena, such as greetings, compliments, apologies, requests and forms of address, often in a cross-cultural contrastive context.

Texts: Recommended introductory reading: Watts, Richard J (2003). Politeness. Cambridge. Chapter 1.

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Haupatseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Language and Identity

• Tuesday 11:15 – 12:45 110 2hrs.

Language is an important means in the construction of human identity. We use language to position ourselves in society in terms of gender, age, place of origin, education, profession, and political or religious beliefs. However, individual, personal identities are always constructed against the background of group identities and are thus the product of a complex web of internal and external interpretations. The first part of the course will contextualise the linguistic construction of personal and group identities within the framework of different linguistic disciplines. Later on, we will look at empirical research focusing on the linguistic construction and perception of personal and group identitiy. Part three of the course will take place at the international symposium “The Linguistic Construction of Personal and Group Identity – Structure, Pragmatics, Cognition” to be held at the Department of English, University of Heidelberg, 26th – 28th September 2013. Students will participate in the conference and take part in a special data-discussion workshop run by experts in the field, where they can present and discuss the data of their own small-scale research projects.

Participants are supposed to take part in the international symposium “The Linguistic Construction of Personal and Group Identity – Structure, Pragmatics, Cognition” to be held at the Department of English, University of Heidelberg, 26th – 28th September 2013 – look out for posters and announcements on the homepage of the AS. Here you can get a first glimpse of current research issues covering theoretical as well as practical and empirical research questions.

Texts: A detailed list of topics for term papers and a detailed reading list as well as further details on how this course is organized will be provided in the first session.

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Colloquium for exam candidates

• Tuesday 14:15 – 15:45 110 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung.

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Research Colloquium

• Wednesday 18:15 – 19:00 112 1hr.

This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. A detailed plan and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

N.B.: A detailed seminar plan will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail.

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 HS I 2hrs.

The aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the main ideas and concepts in English linguistics. We will start off by considering what language and linguistics are, look at key concepts in semiotics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and major principles of language change. There will be an accompanying compulsory tutorial taught by advanced students where the basic tools and techniques linguists require for their trade are presented, the main issues treated in the lecture will be repeated and applied in practical exercises.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Patzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge.
• Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Hauptseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Speech acts and speech act theory – practical explorations

• Tuesday 14:15 – 15:45 115 2hrs.

This course is meant to introduce a broader range of concepts and methods of speech acts and speech act theory developed within the last decades. In the first part of the course we will be dealing with the main developments of speech act theory since Austin and will capture such issues as performativity, speech act verbs, the component parts of speech acts, conditions of speech acts, speech act classification and the issue of (in)directness. In the second part of the course we will focus on empirical studies of how speakers actually use a selection of different illocutionary acts in naturalconversation. Our discussion will focus on directives, apologies, and complimenting, looking at how they are used by different groups of speakers in different contexts. Our discussion will include studies on gender-, cross-cultural- and (im)politeness related issues. Finally we will also look at how children and second language learners learn to master speech acts in first- and second language acquisition.

Texts: A list of topics for term papers and a selective bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Recommended for introductory reading:Huang, Y. (2007): Pragmatics. OUP. Ch. 4.

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Examenskolloquium

• Thursday 09:15 – 10:45 110 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Relevante Literatur: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung. Anmeldung: anmeldung.kleinke@googlemail.com

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Colloquium
This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. A detailed plan and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

N.B.: A detailed seminar plan will be passed around before the first session via E-Mail. Registration: You can register for this class during my office hours (preferred) or by e-mail. No credits/Kein Scheinerwerb.  

Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 HS I 2hrs.

The aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the main ideas and concepts in English linguistics. We will start off by considering what language and linguistics are, look at key concepts in semiotics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and major principles of language change. There will be an accompanying compulsory tutorial taught by advanced students where the basic tools and techniques linguists require for their trade are presented, the main issues treated in the lecture will be repeated and applied in practical exercises.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Patzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge. Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics.Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Hauptseminar
Contrastive Linguistics

• Tuesday 18:15 – 19:45 110 2hrs.

English and German show large areas of agreement, but also important differences. In the first part of this seminar we will explore the traditional approach to contrastive linguistics, which was closely linked with the development of teaching English as a foreign language. Later on we will look into differences and commonalities between English and German against the background of the languages of the world. From a typological point of view we will pinpoint clusters of differences in grammar (inflection, word order, non-finite forms, tenses, passives, etc.), sentence meaning and the semantic structure of the lexicon. Finally we will move on to some pragmatic and socio-linguistic aspects including selected speech acts, politeness strategies, sexist prejudices and the representation of gender in both language systems.

Texts: König, Ekkehard, Gast, Volker (2008): Understanding English – German contrasts. Berlin:Schmidt. Chapter 1.
Registration: per email: anmeldung.kleinke@googlemail.com
Scheinerwerb: Active participation, oral report and research paper or written exam. A list of topics for term papers and a selective bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the course.

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Colloquium
This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. A detailed plan and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.
Note: A detailed seminar plan will be passed around before the first session via email.
Registration: You can register for this class during my office hours (preferred) or by email.

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Examenskolloquium

• Thursday 09:15 – 10:45 110 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Relevante Literatur: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung. Anmeldung: anmeldung.kleinke@googlemail.com

Vorlesung moderne Sprachwissenschaft
Pragmatics

• Tuesday 16:15 – 17:45 110 2hrs.

Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker and interpreted by a listener. This lecture aims to provide an overview of the major sources listeners can rely upon when they attempt to interpret utterances beyond their literal meaning. The course will begin with a brief survey of the development of pragmatics as an independent branch of linguistics and a clarification of its relations to neighbouring disciplines. This will lead us to the basic concepts and notions of linguistic utterances as communicative acts. We will deal with the various techniques of pointing (deixis), as well as the notion of reference. The second part of the lecture will focus on interactional aspects of communication. Among the topics to be discussed in this area are speech acts and speech act theory (Austin, Searle, direct and indirect speech acts, illocutionary roles, etc.) as well as Grice’s co-operative principle, its conversational maxims, implicatures, the notion of relevance (Sperber/Wilson) and Levinson’s presumptive meanings. The third part of the class will be devoted to an introduction to major theories of linguistic politeness (Brown/Levinson’s concept of face, Leech’s pragmatic principle of politeness and Watts’ interactionally constructed ‘Politeness 1’) and rudeness (Bousfield).

Texts: Bublitz, W. (2001): Englische Pragmatik. Eine Einführung. Berlin. Chapter 1.

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Introduction to English Linguistics

• Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 NUni HS 14 2hrs.

The aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the main ideas and concepts in English linguistics. We will start off by considering what language and linguistics are, look at key concepts in semiotics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and major principles of language change. There will be an accompanying compulsory tutorial taught by advanced students where the basic tools and techniques linguists require for their trade are presented, the main issues treated in the lecture will be repeated and applied in practical exercises.

Texts: A reader with texts for the lecture class and tutorials will be available, but students may want to obtain one of the textbooks listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of recommendation).

• Laurel Brinton. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Stephan Gramley and Kurt Michael Patzold. 2004. A Survey of Modern English. London:Routledge. Ernst Leisi und Christian Mair. 1999. Das heutige Englisch: Wesenszüge und Probleme. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Mair, Christian, 2008. English Linguistics.Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
• Plag, Ingo et al., 2007. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Hauptseminar Sprachwissenschaft
Cognitive Linguistics

• Thursday 11:15 – 12:45 110 2hrs.

This course is meant to introduce a broader range of concepts and methods of semantic description, which have been developed within the domain of cognitive linguistics during the last two decades. Starting with the notion of ‘prototypes’, we will first discuss the internal structure of categories, including attributes, family resemblance and gestalt and proceed to levels of categorization. The second part of the course discusses how metaphors and metonymies are used in everyday language as cognitive tools for our conceptualisation of abstract categories. Later on we will look at how speakers construe their mental image of reality (figure-ground-organization, specificity, point of view, etc.), how speakers embed their concepts into more complex units of their background knowledge such as ‘frames’, ‘scripts’ and ‘scenarios’, and how these processes are reflected in linguistic structures. The discussion will be rounded off with a short look at construction grammar and conceptual blending. Throughout the course, we will discuss practical examples showing how cognitive approaches have been used in order to suggest new solutions for the semantic description of lexical, grammatical and pragmatic items.

Texts: Ungerer/Schmid (20062): An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Longman. London. Chapter 1.
A list of topics for term papers and a selective bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the course.

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Examenskolloquium

• Thursday 09:15 – 10:45 110 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Relevante Literatur: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung. Anmeldung: anmeldung.kleinke@googlemail.com

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Colloquium (Blockseminar)
This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium or Vertiefungsphase who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. A detailed plan and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

Note: A detailed seminar plan will be passed around before the first session via email.
Registration: You can register for this class during my office hours (preferred) or by email.

Vorlesung moderne Sprachwissenschaft
Linguistic Pragmatics

• Tuesday 16:15 – 17:45 NU ehem. Senatssaal 2hrs.

Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker and interpreted by a listener. This lecture aims to provide an overview of the major sources listeners can rely upon when they attempt to interpret utterances beyond their literal meaning. The course will begin with a brief survey of the development of pragmatics as an independent branch of linguistics and a clarification of its relations to neighbouring disciplines. This will lead us to the basic concepts and notions of linguistic utterances as communicative acts. We will deal with the various techniques of pointing (deixis), as well as the notion of reference. The second part of the lecture will focus on interactional aspects of communication. Among the topics to be discussed in this area are speech acts and speech act theory (Austin, Searle, direct and indirect speech acts, illocutionary roles, etc.) as well as Grice’s co-operative principle, its conversational maxims, implicatures, the notion of relevance (Sperber/Wilson) and Levinson’s presumptive meanings. The third part of the class will be devoted to an introduction to major theories of linguistic politeness (Brown/Levinson’s concept of face, Leech’s pragmatic principle of politeness and Watts’ interactionally constructed ‘Politeness 1’) and rudeness (Bousfield).
Texts: Recommended for introductory reading: Bublitz, W. (2001): Englische Pragmatik. Eine Einführung. Berlin. Chapter 1.

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Proseminar II modern Sprachwissenschaft
Pragmatic Aspects of Meaning

• Wednesday 11:00 – 12:30 110 2hrs.

In natural interaction speakers usually seem to imply more than they actually say. Such pragmatic aspects of meaning include relating the utterance to the immediate context of a conversation (deixis and reference), meanings speakers intend to convey by specific types of speech acts, additional implied meanings related to Grice’s conversational maxims and meanings generated by various techniques of linguistic politeness. The course deals with how these pragmatic aspects of meaning are dealt with in linguistic theory and discusses empirical studies on how speakers and hearers handle ‘additional’ meaning in natural interaction.

Texts: Recommended introductory reading: Yule, George (1996): Pragmatics. Oxford University Press. Oxford. A detailed list of topics for term papers and a detailed reading list will be provided in the first session of the course.

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Hauptseminar
Discourse Analysis – Practical Explorations into CMC

• Thursday 11:15 – 12:45 110 2hrs.

The development of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has radically changed our interactional practices during the last thirty years. This course focuses on how linguists come to terms with this new type of discourse. We will look at linguistic descriptions of different types of computer-mediated interaction (E-Mail, public forum discussions, chat-communication, blogging, etc.) and discuss their structural characteristics and typical interactional techniques and practices. Against this background, participants will carry out their own small-scale practical empirical research. The course will be organised as a workshop. Participants will work in groups and each participant is expected to present a short practical research paper for discussion in class. A detailed list of topics for term papers and a detailed reading list as well as further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

Texts: Recommended for introductory reading: Crystal, David (2006), Language and the Internet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter I.
Registration: anmeldung.kleinke@gmail.com.

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Examenskolloquium

• Thursday 09:15 – 10:45 110 2hrs.

Die Veranstaltung wendet sich an Studierende des Hauptstudiums und vor allem an Examenskandidaten (Staatsexamen, Magister). Sie gibt ihnen Unterstützung bei der Auswahl und Vorbereitung von Wahlgebieten für das Examen. Im ersten Teil jeder Sitzung werden überblicksartig die einzelnen Teilbereiche der Linguistik dargestellt und diskutiert. Im Anschluss daran werden jeweils Fragen beantwortet, die in Examina vorkommen konnten, und entsprechende Übungsaufgaben gelost. Die jeweiligen Übungen und Aufgaben sind für jede Sitzung vorzubereiten.

Text: Relevante Literatur: Kortmann, Bernd (2005): English Linguistics: Essentials. Berlin. Cornelsen. (Zur Anschaffung empfohlen).Weitere Literaturhinweise in der ersten Sitzung. Anmeldung: anmeldung.kleinke@googlemail.com

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Colloquium (Blockseminar)
This seminar is aimed at students at the end of their Hauptstudium or Vertiefungsphase who are planning to write a BA-, Master-, Staatsexamens- or Magisterarbeit in English (or those who have already started to work on a project). It offers writers of theses and dissertations a forum for presentation and discussion of their work-in-progress. In addition, we will be looking at how linguistic projects are best organized and discuss current research issues including both methodological and theoretical concerns wherever possible. A detailed plan and further details on how the course is organised will be provided in the first session.

Note: A detailed seminar plan will be passed around before the first session via email.
Registration: You can register for this class during my office hours (preferred) or by email.