LINGUISTICS 448 (SOCIOLINGUISTICS)
GUIDELINES FOR FINAL PROJECT
(1) Pick a specific sociolinguistic problem or phenomenon that can be surveyed or tested
experimentally. Typical examples might be: type of code switching as a function of
social class; a specific phonological variable as a correlate of social class, age, gender,
etc. (e.g. vocalization of syllable-final /l/ in central Pennsylvania as in spilled milk or
constructions of the type this shirt needs washed); correlations between a specific dialect
or sociolect and perceptions of honesty, intelligence, etc. It is important that you check
out your potential topic with me before beginning. Feel free to check with me as you
progress, to make sure you are correctly interpreting the instructions.
(2) Your project must involve some kind of elicitation of data, e.g. through a survey or
experiment, not simply observing spontaneous language and analyzing it.
(3) Find a minimum of five supporting references, of which a maximum of two can be
readings assigned for this course. Make sure you have actually read the works in
question. In the text of your project, refer to the works in the following format: Smith
(1980:16-18), etc. for author, date, page number(s).
(4) State a research hypothesis: e.g. intrasentential code-switching will be more common
among lower social classes, women will vocalize syllable-final /l/ more than men, etc.
(5) Design an experiment or survey that will provide an empirical test of this hypothesis.
Your description of the experiment or survey should include:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Test subjects, and a justification for the choice of subjects.
Approximate number of subjects to be tested.
Means of eliciting data
Type of data analysis to be performed
Specific stimuli or examples
Way(s) in which the research hypothesis will be put to the test
The actual project (typed, double-spaced) will consist of the following parts:
(1) A narrative description of the project, covering points 1, 4, and 5 above.
(2) A copy of your proposed survey or experimental stimuli.
(3) An example of how the elicited data might be analyzed (e.g. on a spread-sheet, with a
statistical package, on a graph, etc.)
(4) A bibliography of your sources, in the following format (use hanging margins for all
bibliographic entries):
BOOKS:
Last name, First Name. Date. Place of Publication: Publisher. Edition (if not first
edition). For example:
Schneider, Edgar. 1989. American earlier Black English. Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama Press.
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS:
Last name, first name. Date. Title of article. Journal name volume (number).pages. For
example:
McWhorter, John. 1995. The scarcity of Spanish-based creoles. Language in Society
24.213-244
ARTICLES IN ANTHOLOGIES:
Last name, first name. Date. Title of article. Title of anthology, edited by Last name,
first name, pages. Place of Publication: Publisher. For example:
Mintz, Sidney. 1971. The socio-historical background to pidginization and creolization.
Pidginization and creolization of languages, edited by Hymes, Dell, 481-496.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.