Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines the relationship between language use and social structure. Considers how social factors such as gender, class, age, and ethnicity may be reflected in language use, as well as "big picture" topics that include multilingualism, dialect variation, language policy and linguistic stereotypes. Encourages students to think critically about the social dimensions of language. Open to all students. Breadth-Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course explores language as a social phenomenon constantly being changed by the people who use it (users) as they communicate in different settings (uses), navigating multiple factors such as power relationships, solidarity and social distance among participants. Users continuously change sounds, vocabulary, and grammar over time (e.g., the English of the Middle Ages vs. Modern English today), and various speech communities of the same language use it unique ways (e.g. Vancouver English is distinct from the English spoken in London, UK, and Standard Canadian English is distinct from both Newfoundland English and Black Canadian English.  Within each context, speakers use language in ways that reflect their own cultural identities, backgrounds, beliefs, practices, and values.

This course will introduce you to sociolinguistics, which studies the relationship between social factors, culture, and language. You will learn about sociolinguistic methods through illustrations from a variety of languages, and examine language practices in Canada and in your own speech community as we discuss the following topics:

• bilingualism and multilingualism in speech communities and the social factors driving language shift, language loss, and language death;
• the systematic, rule-governed nature of regional dialects (e.g., West Coast Canadian & American English, Newfoundland English, Southern US English, Cockney, etc.) and social dialects (e.g., the French of the working class vs. that of the upper middle class in Francophone Montreal);
• prejudice and discrimination against linguistic varieties (often stemming from similar attitudes towards their users);
• using language to signal aspects of our social and cultural identity, such as gender (how different genders speak differently?), age (why do teenagers speak differently from adults?), ethnicity (e.g., African American Vernacular English and its global spread as the language of rap, hip hop & non-conformism), social networks (how our typical interactions in typical settings affect our language use);
• the role of politeness in language use, and how it varies across cultures;
• the relationship between language and cognition (does a language shape our thinking and perception of the outside world, or the other way around?).

MODE OF INSTRUCTION/ DELIVERY:  In-person

PLATFORM(s) USED: Canvas & Zoom.

TECH REQUIRED:  Laptop, Internet.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: