Variation and Change in English

3 ECTS credits
75 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1024340BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

Students must have taken 'The Morphosyntax of English', before they can enroll in this course. Enrolling for this course, means that you simultaneously take 'Language variation and change' or have successfully passed it. If you are enrolled in a preparatory programme you can register this course without restrictions.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Bastien De Clercq
Ludovic De Cuypere (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

14 contact hours Lecture

Course Content

This course introduces the student to the exciting and expanding field of corpus linguistics. The electronic collection of spoken and written language into machine-readable corpus data has provided linguists with new ways of analysing linguistic data. The course shifts from the purely structural approach adopted in Introduction to English linguistics and grammar and The Morphosyntax of English to a more sociolinguistically oriented examination of language structure in context. This is mostly an activity-based course in which students develop and apply the skills to investigate variation and change in English by means of corpus data. The organization of the course follows the flow of a research project. After a brief outline of variation in English (incl. macro- and micro-regional variation, social variation, register and style), the corpus-based methodology is presented and applied in a stepwise manner, from data retrieval and data cleaning to data visualization and (statistical) data analysis. Students are required to perform a corpus linguistics study and to present their findings both in an oral presentation and in a written report.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) :
Practical course material (Required) :

Additional info

See CANVAS for details about the concrete organisation of this course

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

Upon completion of this course the student is able to:
-describe the difference between linguistic rules and preferences/norms in reference to lexical and morphosyntactic variation
-define, illustrate and apply the appropriate terminology associated with variation and change in English
-define, illustrate and apply the appropriate terminology associated with corpus linguistics as a general methodological framework
-perform a small scale corpus linguistic study under the limited guidance of an instructor;
-apply the acquired data analysis methods to real language data using software on a self-reliant basis
-present the results of a corpus linguistic study in a written report following the required author guidelines

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 20% of the final mark.
Written Exam determines 30% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 50% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

presentation with a relative weight of 30 which comprises 20% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

written exam with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

report with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Late submissions

Late submissions of the written report are penalised as follows: -5% for this part per day late; a zero mark is given if the report is not submitted within 5 days after the deadline.

Nonattendance

Unlawful absence of the presentation or the written exam results in a zero mark

Second exam session

In the second exam session the written exam and the oral presentation are replaced by an oral exam during which both questions about the corpus study and theoretical questions about the content of the course will be asked. The final mark of the two parts in the second exam session is calculated as follows: oral exam (40%) + updated version of the written report (60%).

GenAI

For this assignment, you may only use AI tools to revise the language of your assignment. No additional content may be generated. Each use of generative AI must be indicated appropriately.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context