Variations in Older and Modern Scots (P00793)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PPL-P-VOMSEL

Study of linguistic variation - phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical - in (1) Older Scots through detailed analysis of texts and (2) modern Scots through investigation of diatopic and sociolinguistic patterning. Study draws on the respective methodologies of historical dialectology and sociolinguistics. Evidence of the relationship of the modern and historical forms of language is examined. Variation is presented to bring together both the diatopic and diachronic dimensions.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Language Sciences, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) 30 minutes per week for 9 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	14:50	Central
Lecture	Thursday	14:00	14:50	Central
Lecture	Friday	14:00	14:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be expected to have gained at the end of the course:

Knowledge of the main lines of development in the history of Scots and its distinctive patterns of variation in the medieval and modern periods;

Understanding of the linguistic and cultural history of Scots, including its origins and its relationships with English and other European languages with which Scots has been in formative contact;

Knowledge of the forms of the data to be observed in Older and Modern Scots and the distinctive problems they pose for description and analysis;

Understanding of different methods of description and anlysis required for study of variation in: (1) a "text language" (Older Scots) in order to reconstruct it diatopic and diachronic patterns; and (2) diatopically and sociolinguistically stratified varieties of the modern spoken forms;

ability to assess the strenths and weakneses of the different methods of description and analysis.