Standard English (S Lange SoSe 2024)

English is unusual among the European vernaculars in having developed a standard twice in its history: Old English already possessed a West Saxon standard, which was however cut short by the Norman Conquest in 1066. For centuries, the main languages of written record were Latin and French rather than English. When English re-emerged as a written language in the 14th and 15th century, the process of standardization was about to start afresh.

This course will be devoted to tracing the origins, forms and functions of Standard English. We will consider the putative origins of the standard in the late medieval Chancery English and will then focus on the relevant developments in the Early Modern English period, the age of prescriptivism, elaboration and codification of the English language. Another important issue concerns the ideology of the standard: we will probe into the rise and the consequences of the standard ideology in present-day English.

When: THU 2.DS

Where: ABS/0E08