Language, Culture, and Society

3 units

This course explores the relationships between linguistic practice and other social and cultural processes. Among the topics to be discussed are language and social identity, language and thought, language and gender, multilingualism and language shift as well as the connections between language and the identity of ethnically or nationally defined communities. The course format will alternate between classic theoretical readings and ethnographic case studies on the interplay between linguistic practice and ideology as well as cultural and social processes.