Metaphor Variation in Englishes around the World - Einzelansicht

Please note: This seminar culminates in an international workshop at Potsdam University on 7-8 July 2016. It is required to take part in this workshop. You find the conference website here.

In this seminar, we will investigate whether different varieties of English feature specific conceptual metaphors, and inhowfar these might be culturally motivated.

Two strands of research are brought together in this seminar. World Englishes studies, on the one hand, examine the varieties of English across the world, such as Aboriginal English in Australia or Indian English. Under the influence of local languages and cultures, these have developed throughout the centuries into stable indigenised Englishes. However, first-language varieties such as British or American English are still often deemed more prestigious.
On the other hand, we will deal with Conceptual Metaphor Theory that sees metaphors as cognitive phenomena through which we make sense of the world. Since such mental processes happen non-linguistically, considerable culture-induced metaphor variation can be expected across World Englishes. This linking of the paradigms of World Englishes and Cognitive Linguistics has only started to gain ground during the last years.

In order to examine metaphor variation in World Englishes, students will design, plan and conduct their own research projects. This has to be done constantly throughout the semester, since the results will be presented in a poster session during the 2nd Workshop on Metaphor Variation in Englishes around the World, which takes place on 7-8 July at Potsdam University. The workshop is an international linguistic conference in which renowned researchers also take part. It will be a challenging, but above all exciting and rewarding task for students to become part of the scientific community by presenting own original research.

will be provided in the Moodle

planning and implementation of own research project
design and formatting of a research poster
short presentation of project in class (rehearsal for the workshop)
presentation of results in a poster session at the 2nd Workshop on Metaphor Variation in Englishes around the World
short reflection report (4-5 pages)