The word "research" used to make me cringe until I realized that it doesn't necessarily have to mean science science. I much prefer social sciences.
Lucky that the Oxford class revolves around British culture and history anyway.
I am most interested in contemporary cultural and social aspects. Harry Potter was brought up as a possible topic, and being a lifelong fan of Harry Potter, I would love to study that (the effects of Pottermania, Rowling's social mobility, what aspects of British culture make it into the Harry Potter books that Americans miss or don't understand, etc.) I also find the accent fascinating -> the break between American and British accents must have happened less than 250 years ago, and I always thought that was a very small time period for large linguistical changes to occur. I'd love to look into British slang, or the relationship of movie theater entertainment versus dramatic theatre entertainment.
How does one research things like slang or accents, though?
Noah Webster made a significant impact on the English language when he introduced the first American dictionary in 1828. It eliminated a lot of the major differences between modern American English and British English (color/colour, center/centre, etc), and, while it didn't really take off at first, it had the lasting social impact of American becoming so unique and important as to finally have its own language.
ReplyDeleteYou could look at poetry from around the time America began to split politically from England to discover changes in accent. If something has a distinct rhyme scheme, then it's relatively easy to determine the accent of a questionable word. For instance, the early American pronunciation of "what" could be determined if its rhyming counterpart was 'cut' or 'caught'. I always find it amusing when docu-dramas on the American Revolution give the Loyalists a BBC British accent and the Patriots something akin to a Texan accent, but I have to wonder if there was a real effort to distinguish between the two groups via language, dress, etc. I have a feeling that the changes between American English and British English happened gradually at first, then increased exponentially with the Westward movement. Even some areas of New England today sound closer to a British accent than an American one.
The Oxford English Dictionary is a great resource for researching the history of language. I flubbed a word in class the other day (I said 'charitous' for 'charitable') and was delighted/vindicated to come home and find that it was, in fact, once a word. If the history of language is something you're really interested in, then you should consider taking ENGL 370 or ENGL 373. I took the former with John Webster (related to Noah!) and the latter with Colette Moore. To date they have been the two best classes I've taken in college.
Language and accents would be a really fun topic to look into. There's so much to do with it. Dr. Reed has said that there are significant social differences between accents in Britain. What we hear as "British" is divided as regionally as our Californian/Texan/Upper-Midwest/Boston/etc accents are. There are huge differences in slang usage between social classes and age groups. I would also think that American pop culture has a large impact on the language of British youth (for instance the horrible Southern California influenced 'like' inserted after every, like, other word).
In terms of Harry Potter and language, it would be really interesting to contrast the language of the British versions versus the language of the American versions. I find it remarkable that the title of the first book was changed to appeal more to American children. I don't think I would have been deterred from a children's book that had Philosopher's in the title so long as the cover and summary were eye-catching! I wonder what it says about the perception of British vs. American children.
Anyway, apologies for the huge comment, but I think you've got some great ideas for research!