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Seminar: 10-76-3-D1-03 Key Topics in Linguistics: The language of capitalism - Details

Seminar: 10-76-3-D1-03 Key Topics in Linguistics: The language of capitalism - Details

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General information

Course name Seminar: 10-76-3-D1-03 Key Topics in Linguistics: The language of capitalism
Subtitle
Course number 10-76-3-D1-03
Semester WiSe 2025/2026
Current number of participants 28
maximum number of participants 25
Home institute Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Courses type Seminar in category Teaching
Next date Thursday, 18.12.2025 14:15 - 15:45, Room: MZH 1460
Type/Form
Englischsprachige Veranstaltung Ja
ECTS points 3

Rooms and times

MZH 1460
Thursday: 14:15 - 15:45, weekly (13x)
GW1 C2270
Thursday: 14:15 - 15:45, weekly (1x)

Module assignments

Comment/Description

Think capitalism only lives in boardrooms and balance sheets? Think again. It’s in the words we use, the stories we tell, and the meanings we don't even notice.
This course invites students to explore how capitalist ideologies are woven into the very fabric of the English language. Through critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and etymological inquiry, students will examine how everyday words, phrases, and narratives shape—and are shaped by—the socio-economic realities we inhabit. We will investigate how language does not merely reflect reality, but actively constructs it, uncovering how capitalist markers embed themselves in the meanings we take for granted. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to identify, analyze, and challenge the underlying stories capitalism tells through language—stories we all speak and live by.

Requirements
The usual: read the reading material, join class, participate in classroom discussions, hand in the assignments on time.

Studienleistung (D1a) three worksheets.
Prüfungsleistung (D1c) three worksheets and a ten-page term paper.
Please not that this class cannot be take for ‚Ersatzleistung für das Auslandssemester‘ or General Studies. Erasmus students are welcome.

References
Baker, Paul. 2024. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. 2nd ed. Bloomsbury Academic. Available as ebook from the library.
Klein, Naomi. (2000) 2021. No Logo: An insightful examination of advertising’s impact on society and youth culture. Fourth estate.
Leary, John Patrick. 2019. Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism. Haymarket Books.
Sahner, Simon & Daniel Stähr. 2024. Die Sprache des Kapitalismus. S. Fischer.

Admission settings

The course is part of admission "Limited number of participants: Key Topics in Linguistics: The language of capitalism".
The following rules apply for the admission:
  • A defined number of seats will be assigned to these courses.
    The seats will be assigned in order of enrolment.

Registration mode

After enrolment, participants will manually be selected.

Potential participants are given additional information before enroling to the course.