GERM 460

Overview of the Origin of German

1. Students will be able to provide a brief overview of the origin of German and its position in the Germanic language family;

Hochdeutsch

2. be able to define Hochdeutsch and its position in German language use;

Sounds of German

3. be able to identify and describe the sounds of German, including the features which distinguish them from one another, and whether these sounds are separate phonemes or allophones;

Phonological Processes

4. be able to identify and describe the phonological processes, e.g., Auslautverhärtung, dissimilation, reduction, umlaut, etc. which affect how the sounds of German interact;

Prosodic Structure of German

5. be able to outline the prosodic structure of German, including syllable structure, phonotactics, accent placement and foot structure;

Word Formation Rules and Morphology

6. be able to identify various word formation rules in German and be able to describe the core morphological foundation of German, including differences between derivational and inflectional morphology and the roles that paradigms play in organising words in their various forms;

Prosody and Morphology

7. be able to describe how prosodic structure helps shape some aspects of the morphology, including plural and i-cropping formations;

Breaking Down German Sentences into Basic Constituents

8. be able to break down German sentences into their basic constituent structure and understand the structural difference between V2 and Verb-at-end sentences;

Phrases which are Complements of Various Words

9. be able to identify the types of phrases which are complements of various words in German;

Basic Concepts of Dialectology

10. understand the basic concepts of dialectology to define and differentiate between the major dialects of German;

Various Dialects of German

11. understand the meaning of the word dialect in its linguistic sense and appreciate the various dialects of German as legitimate linguistic entities of equal value;

Various Changes in Spelling

12. be able to describe the various changes in spelling brought about by the new Rechtschreibung and understand the motivating factors behind language and orthographic normalisation;

Contemporary Trends in Spoken Modern German

13. be able to identify and discuss contemporary trends in spoken modern German such as lexical borrowing, youth language, use/loss of dialects, etc.

Disambiguating Ambiguous Sentences

14. to be able to disambiguate ambiguous sentences and words and describe how the internal structure of words or sentences (in addition to accent placement) explains the multiple meanings behind the ambiguity.

Community-Based Application for Learning

Students will apply their learning in given classes to create projects that help contribute to the enrichment of others outside of those classes. They will move their research beyond the culmination of a final product submitted for a grade, bringing their work into the community and public domain,  including helping projects outside the classroom in concrete ways, e.g., developing  materials for an online lexicon project, creating enrichment materials and activities for K-16 German classes, creating posters and papers for conferences, being able to help other students in their learning and resarch. As a result, students will be able to articulate how their learning can be applied in real life and can be extended outside of the classroom and ultimately that their learning has and should have community impact.