Intro to Sociolinguistics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In this course, we will investigate how language shapes and is shaped by society. We will address various levels of social organization (from nation to neighborhood to individual) as well as many levels of language organization (from phoneme to conversation to entire languages). Through course readings, lectures, group discussions, hands-on data analysis, presentations by invited guest speakers, and other media, we will cover topics such as societal multilingualism, language planning and policy. We will examine the structured nature of language variation among and across different social groups (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, social class), and will discuss the relationship between variation and language change over time. We will also investigate language attitudes and stereotypes, speakers’ linguistic style and language performance. We will discuss ethnographic methods of studying the intersection of culture and discourse. Finally, we will consider the applications of sociolinguistics to various professional fields, including education, law, and medicine.