APLN 534/LNGN 450: Languages in Contact
(Summer 2014)
Class hours:
Classroom:
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
Email:
May 19-June 12, MTWR 6:00pm-8:30pm
Dickson Hall 274
Dr. Longxing Wei
Schmitt Hall 240D
973-655-7501
weil@mail.montclair.edu
Selected Readings:
(The reading packet prepared by the instructor)
Course description:
This course offers a study of the language contact phenomena and effects of bilingualism
and multilingualism on society and on the languages involved. It draws together diverse
approaches and examines a variety of examples from many different situations for
students to become familiar with the possible outcomes of language contact. Language
contact is viewed from four distinct perspectives: Social aspects of the bilingual and
multilingual community, the bilingual speaker, language use in the bilingual community,
and linguistic outcomes of language contact.
Course requirements:
1. Students are required to complete 4 assignments to demonstrate their understanding of
the phenomena of language contact and the relevant issues. Each assignment is due on
the class day of the following week. Late assignments are penalized one letter grade for
each weekday elapsed after the due date. All assignments must be submitted as a
condition for passing the course, even if too many days have elapsed for the assignment
to receive a passing grade.
2. Students must be responsible for their absences and the sequential course work.
Evaluation and grading:
The exercise assignment average counts toward the final course grade. The evaluation
and grading include the student’s class participation (attendance and in-class discussion).
4 assignments
90%
Class participation
10%
Each assignment is graded based on the following letter scale:
A 100-93, A- 92-90, B+ 89-86, B 85-83, B- 82-80, C+ 79-76, C 75-73, C- 7270, D+ 69-66, D 65-60, F 59 Grades of “D+” and “D” or “D-” are eliminated as a possibility for graduate students’
final course grades.
1
Tentative Weekly Syllabus
Note:
1. The instructor reserves the right to change the following plans as class needs dictate.
2. Each assignment will be given one week before the due date to be announced.
3. The complete reference of each selected article is provided in the reading packet.
Week 1 (May 19-22)
Introduction: Language contact
1
Introduction: Bilingualism and language contact
René Appel and Pieter Muysken
2
Bilingualism
Suzanne Romaine
• Assignment 1 (20%)
Week 2 (May 26-29)
I
Social aspects of the bilingual and multilingual community
3
The bilingual and multilingual community
Suzanne Romaine
4
Diglossia
Charles A. Ferguson
5
Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without
bilingualism
Joshua A. Fishman
• Assignment 2 (20%)
Week 3 (June 2-5)
II
The bilingual speaker
6
Psychological dimensions of bilingualism
René Appel and Pieter Muysken
7
Second language acquisition and linguistic theory: The role of language
transfer
Susan Gass
2
8
Activation of lemmas in the multilingual mental lexicon and transfer in third
language learning
Longxing Wei
• Assignment 3 (25%)
III
Language use in the bilingual community
9
Code-switching as indexical of social negotiations
Carol Myers-Scotton
10
Intrasentential codeswitching as conceptual projection of lemmas in the
bilingual mental lexicon
Longxing Wei
• Assignment 4 (25%)
Week 4 (June 9-12)
IV
Linguistic outcomes
11
Language contact and language change
René Appel and Pieter Muysken
12
Lexical borrowing
René Appel and Pieter Muysken
13
Multilingualism in linguistic history: Creolization and indigenization
Salikoko Mufwene
14
Pidgins and creoles
René Appel and Pieter Muysken
3