This course in "pragmastylistics" starts from the observation that language varies, but not in a haphazard fashion, and that linguistic variance can be correlated with a number of situational constraints. The ability to make the proper linguistic choices in accordance with the demands of the situation is part of a language user's communicative competence.

Part I of the course, "the Toolbox," seeks to provide the student with the analytical instruments necessary to assess and describe both the nonlinguistic constraints and the corresponding observable linguistic features. At the same time, it seeks to expand the student's foreign-language repertoire by means of the study of real examples in a variety of genres, registers, styles, and modes. Part I constitutes the main part of the junior (1st licence) course.

In Part II, "Specific Analyses", the instruments from the "toolbox" will be employed to approach and understand the correlation between situation and style in a number of varieties of present-day English, such as the English of advertising, BBC world news, headlines, political rhetoric and religion.

Students are expected to sit 1) a written exam and 2) an oral exam (personal project) at the end of the course.

 

PREREQUISITES :

Advanced knowledge, accuracy and fluency in English are required.

All students are moreover supposed to be familiar with the content of the following books (which students in L&L have already read in BA2 and BA3) :

S.I. Hayakawa: Language in Thought and Action. N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

I. Plag (et al.) : Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter, 2009.

RECOMMENDED READINGS :

Crystal, D. & D. Davy: Investigating English Style London: Longman, 1969.

Gregory, M. & Carroll, S. : Language and Situation: Language Varieties and their Social Contexts. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (Language and Society Series) 1978.

Hewings, A. & Hewings, M.: Grammar and Context. Oxon : Routledge, 2005.

Hickey, L. (ed.): The Pragmatics of Style. London & N.Y. : Routledge, 1990.

Grice, H.P. : "Logic and Conversation", in Cole, P. & Morgan, J.L. (eds.): Speech Acts (Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3). N.Y., Academic Press, 1975, pp. 41-58.

Searle, J. : Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge U.P., 1969.

Searle, J. : "Indirect Speech Acts" in: Cole, P. & Morgan, J.L. (eds.): Speech Acts  (Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3). N.Y., Academic Press, 1975, pp. 59-82.

Slosberg Andersen, E. : Speaking with Style: The Sociolinguistic Skills of Children. London, Routledge, 1990.

Trudgill, P. : Sociolinguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.

Wardhaugh, R. : How Conversation Works. Oxford, Blackwell, 1985.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
IMPLEMENTING BOLOGNA
2000-WORD VOC(BA1)
IDIOMS (BA2)
HAYAKAWA SUMMARY(BA3)
ESSAY-WRITING(BA3)
MEMOIRES (MA1,MA2)

BOOKS
COLLECTIVE VOLUMES
PAPERS IN BOOKS
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS
.
DOWNLOADABLE PAPERS

TRAVEL/VOYAGES
FAMILY/FAMILLE
GENEALOGIE
AT HOME
PRIZE PICTURES

USEFUL WEBSITES
LANG.& LITT.,ULB
THEOLINGUISTICS
BNC CORPUS
WORDSMITH DEMO VERSION

BA1

BA2

BA3

MA1

MA1 PROJ

MA2

TRANSLATION