Description
The study of language variation has revealed how people use, evaluate and perceive language and speech. The first major sociolinguistic investigation was by William Labov in the 1960s. He looked at the use of English in New York department stores and found that people adjusted their speech to listeners, for various reasons. Most importantly, he proved that pronunciation variation that seemed random was in fact quite systematic, and predictable on the basis of speaker characteristics and social circumstances. Many other investigations into English and other languages have since been performed, all of which have had their own angle: evaluation, perception, description, and various others. Sex, social class, and age have been the most important variables studied, but other variables have also been investigated. In this MA course, sociolinguistic articles – mainly on English language variation – will be discussed, as well as relevant sociolinguistic theory. Through real-life examples and small-scale experiments, students will be exposed to sociolinguistic research.
Teaching method
Two-hour seminar per week.
Course objectives
learn to read and interpret sociolinguistic literature;
understand the most relevant aspects of sociolinguistic theory;
learn to present and discuss research and write critically on this research.
Required reading
Chambers, J. (latest edition), Sociolinguistic Theory, Blackwell Publishers.
articles will be posted on Blackboard.
Test method
Presentations (40%), homework (20%), and course paper (40%). The course can be extended to 15 ECTS through an exam.
Time table
The timetable will be available from June 1st on the Internet.
Information
English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or by mail: English@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Registration
Students can register through U-twist before 15 July, After 15 July students can only register through the Departmental Office.
Blackboard
Students need to enroll in Blackboard to have access to important information such as deadlines, homework assignments, and grades.