Intro to Sociolinguistics

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Do people of different age groups, origins, genders and professions speak differently? For example, how does youth language differ from technical language or migrant German? And how do language contact, identities and language attitudes (extra-linguistic factors) and grammaticalization (intra-linguistic factor) influence language? The seminar introduces the central concepts, theories and methods of sociolinguistics. You will become familiar with ways of determining and analyzing linguistic variation and variability in society and carry out your own sociolinguistic analyses of language use in German. Using a mini-interview, you will try out a method for sociolinguistic surveys based on selected parameters (e.g. age, origin, level of education). You will also gain an overview of the diverse areas of application of sociolinguistic research.