LING 283: Language and Society
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5:45pm-7:45pm, ICC 117
Instructor:
Sylvia Sierra
sas283@georgetown.edu
Office: Poulton Hall
Office Hours: M/W 4:30-5:30pm
Course Description:
Whether they know it or not, everyone is interested in sociolinguistics. Comments
such as “People from that state talk funny,” “What’s the point of that story?” or “How
was I supposed to know you were kidding?” are the kind of casual remarks that
come up in day-to-day conversation, but behind each of them is an implicit theory
about the way language and society are connected – that a way of talking is
connected with a geographical location, for example, or that a good story should
have an identifiable “point” that other people can pick up on. As participants in the
social world, each of us does this kind of theorizing all day, every day, but social
scientists have developed philosophies and methodologies that allow us to conduct
more principled investigations into questions such as “What does it mean when
people from a given social group use a certain pronunciation?” “What counts as a
‘good’ story in this social setting?” and “What kind of cues do people give to signal
that they’re not intending to be taken literally?”
This course examines the dynamic interaction between language use and its social
context. Topics include the impact of variables such as regional origin, ethnicity,
gender, social class, and cultural norms on the way language is used. Students are
also introduced to key issues surrounding language choice, code-switching, and
cross-cultural communication in multilingual and multicultural societies. Finally, the
course introduces students to key topics in language policy and language planning,
and considers educational applications of sociolinguistic research.
Course Objectives:
This course will:
•
provide an introduction to major topics in sociolinguistics and
anthropological linguistics, the study of language use in its social context
•
broaden students’ understanding of linguistic diversity and
mechanisms of language change, language use in interaction, and issues of
power and ideology in discourse
•
develop students’ critical thinking abilities and awareness of the role
that language plays in mediating social relations and fostering social change
•
help students discover connections between linguistics and their other
academic and professional interests, e.g., journalism and media studies,
creative writing, teaching, business, social life
Course Requirements:
In order to successfully complete the course, students must:
•
Read all assigned material
•
Attend and participate in classroom discussions and activities
•
Successfully complete three written exercises, group oral presentation,
and 2 exams
Method of Evaluation:
Written Exercises (3):
Midterm Paper:
Final Paper:
Article presentation:
40%
25%
25%
10%
Required Textbooks:
Mesthrie, Rajend et al. 2009. Introducing sociolinguistics, 2nd edition. John Benjamins.
Duranti, Alessandro (ed). 2006. A Companion to linguistic anthropology. Blackwell.
*Additional readings will be posted on Blackboard.
COURSE CONTENT SYLLABUS
UNIT 1: Introduction (6/1, 6/2, 6/3)
Readings: Syllabus, Mesthrie Ch. 1, Duranti “Synopsis of Contents” (pp vii-xii)
and “Preface” (xiii - xiv)
UNIT 2: Regional Variation (6/4)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 2
Notes:
Sign up for article presentations (6/4)
UNIT 3: Social Variation (6/8, 6/9)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 3; Duranti Ch. 7; Lippi-Green 2012
Notes:
Hand out instructions for WE1 (6/8)
Presentation:
(6/9)
Sweetland 2002 – Unexpected but authentic use of ethnic dialect
UNIT 4: Communities and Identity (6/10, 6/11)
Readings: Duranti Ch. 1; Shoaps 2002, Bucholtz 1999
Notes:
Presentation:
girls (6/10)
Bucholtz 1999 – “Why be normal?” Language, identity of nerd
UNIT 5: Language Variation and Change (6/15, 6/16)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 4; Wolfram and Schilling-Estes (2006), Ch. 4
WE1 Due (6/11)
Presentation: Schilling-Estes 1997–Dialect death two post-insular island communities
(6/15)
UNIT 6: Multilingualism and Code-Switching (6/17) informal midterm evaluation
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 5; Duranti Ch. 3, 4 (excerpts)
Notes:
Hand out instructions for WE2 (6/16)
Presentation:
(6/16)
Kulick and Stroud (2010[1990]) – Code-switching in Gapun
UNIT 7: Language in Interaction (6/18, 6/122)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 6; Duranti Ch. 8, 12
Notes:
Presentations:
Schiffrin 1984 – Jewish argument as sociability (6/18)
De Fina 2006 – Group identity, narrative, and self-representations
(6/22)
MIDTERM PAPER: Due on 6/19 at 11:59PM - Submit your PAPER via Blackboard
UNIT 8: Language and Gender (6/22; 6/23)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 7; Duranti Ch. 17; Tannen 1993
Notes: WE2 Due (6/22)
Presentation:
speaking (6/23)
Baxter 2002 –Why boys are more adept than girls at public
UNIT 9: Language Planning and Policy (6/24)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 12; Duranti Ch. 6; Crawford 2008 (excerpt)
Notes:
Hand out instructions for WE3 (6/24)
Presentation:
Heller 2001 – Legitimate language in a multilingual school (6/24)
UNIT 10: Critical Sociolinguistics (6/25)
Readings: Mesthrie Ch. 10; Duranti Ch. 21, 22
Presentation:
(6/25)
Hill 1995 – Junk Spanish, covert racism and the leaky boundary
UNIT 11: Sociolinguistics in Education (6/29)
Reading:
Mesthrie Ch. 11; Duranti Ch. 11; Godley et al 2006
Notes:
WE3 Due (6/29)
UNIT 12: Language Socialization (6/30, 7/1)
Presentation:
Alim 2010 – Critical language awareness (6/30)
FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS (7/2)
List of Additional Required Readings on Blackboard (asterisk=oral presentation
reading)
*Alim, H. Samy (2010). Critical language awareness. In N.H. Hornberger & S.L.
McKay (eds), Sociolinguistics and language education. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters.
*Baxter, Judith (2002). Jokers in the pack: Why boys are more adept than girls at
public speaking. Language and Education 16(2): 81-96.
Bucholtz, Mary (1999). “Why be normal?”: Language and identity practices in a
community of nerd girls. Language in Society 28(2): 203-223.
Crawford, James (2008). Advocating for English learners: Selected essays. Vol. 69.
Multilingual Matters.
*De Fina, Anna (2006). Group identity, narrative, and self-representations. In A. De
Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (eds), Discourse and Identity. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. 351-375.
*Eckert, Penelope & Sally McConnell-Ginet (1995). Constructing meaning,
constructing selves: Snapshots of language, gender, and class from Belten
High. In K. Hall & M. Bucholtz (eds), Gender articulated: Language and the
socially constructed self. New York: Routledge.
Godley, Amanda J., Julie Sweetland, Rebecca S. Wheeler, Angela Minnici and Brian
D. Carpenter. 2006. Preparing teachers for dialectally diverse classrooms.
Educational Researcher 35: 30-37.
* Heller, Monica (2001). Legitimate language in a multilingual school. In M. Heller &
M. Martin-Jones (eds), Voices of authority: Education and linguistic difference.
Westport: Ablex. 381-402.
* Hill, Jane H. (1995). Junk Spanish, covert racism, and the (leaky) boundary
between public and private spheres. Pragmatics 5: 197-212.
* Kerswill, Paul (2003). Dialect levelling and geographical diffusion in British
English. In D. Britain &J. Cheshire (eds.), Social dialectology. In honour of Peter
Trudgill. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 223-243.
* Kulick, Don & Christopher Stroud (1990). Code-switching in Gapun: Social and
linguistic aspects of language use in a language shifting community. In John
W.M. Verhaar (ed.) Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin. Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 205-234. Reprinted in Meyerhoff and Schleef
2010.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 2012. The real trouble with Black language. English with an
accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States, 2nd edition.
New York: Routledge. 182-213.
*Schiffrin, Deborah (1984). Jewish argument as sociability. Language in Society 13(3):
311-335.
Schiffrin, Deborah (1994). Interactional sociolinguistics. Approaches to discourse.
Malden, MA: Blackwell. 97-136.
*Sweetland, Julie (2002). Unexpected but authentic use of an ethnically–marked
dialect. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6(4): 514-538.
Tannen, Deborah (1993). The relativity of linguistic strategies: Rethinking power and
solidarity in gender and dominance. Gender and conversational interaction.
New York: Oxford University Press. 165-188.
Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling-Estes (2006). Dialects in the United States: Past,
present, and future. American English: Dialects and variation. 2nd edition.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.