Prof. Dr. Josef Schmied
Hauptseminar: Contrastive Grammar (ComputerPool RH38/41:338)
| Blockseminar Fr Oct 17th/2-6 p.m. +Sa Nov 8th/2-6 p.m. +Fr Dec 5th/2-6 p.m. + Sa Dec 6th/9 a.m.-6 p.m. Students are taught in the 1st session how to use the English -German translation corpus to analyse grammar contrastively by categorising hundreds of authentic examples. The following two sessions will discuss student contributions in detail on the following topics: 1) Can/could/may/might and their German equivalents2) Shall/should/ought to and their German equivalents 3) Must/have to and German equivalents 4) Continuous forms and their German equivalents 5) Future time references in English and German 6) Conditionals in English and German 7) The do - tun/machen overlap 8) seem/appear and their German equivalents 9) begin/start/end/finish/complete and infinitive or gerund constructions: can German translations help to decide? 10) German downtoners like schon, denn, etc. and their translations in English 11) English of vs. German von 12) When (English) in is not (German) in 13) Complex prepositions in English and German 14) discuss/debate/talk +/- prepositions and their German equivalents etc. The final session will also discuss more general issues like translatability and the hypothesis that "there is less correspondence between surface form and semantic representation in English than in German" (viii), as claimed in Hawkins, John (1986). A Comparative Typology of English and German. Unifying the Contrasts. London & Sydney: Croom Helm. |