LING 102: Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Summer 2011
Course information
• Mon/Wed 10:00 – 1:10; July 6 – August 10
• 303 Williams Hall
• Course Blackboard site: http://courseweb.library.upenn.edu
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
• Email: laurel@ling.upenn.edu
• Office hours: Mon/Wed 2:00 – 3:30 or by appointment
• Office location: Linguistics Lab, 3810 Walnut St., Rm. 214
Course description
This class is an introduction to the study of human language from a social and
historical perspective. Students will acquire a variety of tools for linguistic analysis,
and these techniques are then used to trace social differences in the use of language.
The course focuses on linguistic variation and change in American English. Students
will engage in field projects to search for the social correlates of linguistic behavior,
and use quantitative methods to analyze the results.
Readings
• Peter Trudgill (2000): Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and
Society. Available at the Penn Book Center, 130 S. 34th St. (~$13)
• Course bulkpack of selected readings. Available in hard copy at the Copy Center
in Levine Hall, 33rd and Walnut (~$15), and digitally on Blackboard under
Course Documents/Virtual Bulkpack.
Course requirements
• Be present and on time for every class session, and participate in discussion and
in-class exercises. Missing one class meeting during the summer session is the
equivalent of missing an entire week during the academic year! If you must be
absent due to an emergency, please be in touch with me to the extent possible.
• Assignments should be completed and submitted by the deadline, directly to the
Blackboard site. Late assignments will be accepted only under exceptional
circumstances. Late field project data will not be accepted.
• You will need access to Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet program for this
course. Excel is available on all public Penn computers: see
http://www.upenn.edu/computing/view/labs/ for a list of Penn computer labs.
You are welcome to use a nonproprietary spreadsheet program, like Google Docs
or OpenOffice, instead, but know that I may not be able to give you tech support,
and that it may not have all the features we need (e.g. chi-squared tests).
Linguistics 102, Summer 2011
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
Course components and grading
• Field project data submission: 5% x 2 field projects = 10%
• Field project report: 15% x 2 field projects = 30%
• Midterm exam: 20%
• Final exam: 25%
• Homeworks and assignments: 15%
This last component will consist of two homework assignments and an in-class
presentation on August 3, worth 3% each, and a language journal, worth 6%.
Homeworks will be graded on a scale of full credit / partial credit / no credit.
Field projects will be graded on a scale out of 15.
Class participation is not a formal part of your grade, but it will be taken into
account in determining whether borderline grades will be rounded up.
Important dates
Wednesday, July 13: Homework 1 due
Friday, July 15: Data due for Field Project 1
Monday, July 18: Homework 2 due
Friday, July 22: Field Project 1 report due
Monday, July 25: Midterm
Friday, July 29: Data due for Field Project 2
Monday, August 3: In-class dialect presentations
Friday, August 5: Field Project 2 report due
Monday, August 8: Language journal entries due
Wednesday, August 10: Final exam
Linguistics 102, Summer 2011
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
Schedule of topics
Wednesday, July 6
Introduction
Languages, dialects, and accents. Standard vs. non-standard language. Overview
of the linguistic elements that exhibit variation, and the social factors that
condition that variation.
Analyzing linguistic data
Variables and variants. Orderly heterogeneity and the speech community.
Defining the envelope of variation. Coding linguistic data.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #1 (van Herk)
• Labov’s “A life of learning”: online at http://bit.ly/Ling102Labov
(have headphones handy!)
• Trudgill ch. 1
Monday, July 11
Phonetics & phonology
The sounds of language and how they pattern. Vowel systems. The phoneme and
the notion of contrast. Conditioned phonological alternations.
Lab session
Excel functions. Effective graphical display of data. Cross-tabulations.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #2 (Tserdanelis et al.)
• Josef Fruehwald’s graphics manifesto: online at http://bit.ly/Ling102Fruehwald
Wednesday, July 13
Sound change
Changes in vowel relationships. Mergers and splits. Chain shifts. Principles of
chain shifting.
Lab session
Statistical significance and null-hypothesis testing. The chi-squared test.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #3 (Gries)
• Bulkpack #4 (Blyth et al.)
• Bulkpack #5 (Tagliamonte & D’Arcy)
Linguistics 102, Summer 2011
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
Monday, July 18
Time and age
Stable variables and changes in progress. Generational change and the apparenttime construct. Age-grading. Language change across a speaker’s lifespan.
Social class
Defining social class. Social stratification of language. The curvilinear pattern.
Changes from below vs. above the level of consciousness and the social groups
that lead them.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #6 (Meyerhoff ch. 7)
• Bulkpack #7 (Labov)
• Trudgill ch. 2
Wednesday, July 20
Gender
How the sexes pattern on changes in progress and stable variables. Labov’s
principles of gender and language change. The Gender Paradox. Leaders of
linguistic change.
Review for midterm
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #8 (Meyerhoff ch. 10)
• Trudgill ch. 4
Monday, July 25
Midterm
Ethnicity — Guest lecture by Brittany McLaughlin
Sources of linguistic variation among ethnic groups. Substratum effects. Features
of African American English. Sources of African American English.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #9 (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes)
• Trudgill ch. 3
Linguistics 102, Summer 2011
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
Wednesday, July 27
Identity and locally-salient categories
Communities of practice. Language variation in high school social groups.
Language variation and community orientation.
Style
Register. Attention to speech vs. audience design. Casual and careful speech
styles. The Observer’s Paradox. Hypercorrection of the lower middle class.
Linguistic insecurity.
Associated reading:
• Bulkpack #10 (Mullany, Dyer)
• Bulkpack #11 (Meyerhoff ch. 3)
• Trudgill ch. 5 up to pg. 89
Monday, August 1
Language-internal factors
Effects of a variable’s history on how it patterns. Effects of linguistic structure on
variable patterning. Functional constraints on linguistic variation.
Dialect geography
Sources of regional dialect boundaries. Isoglosses. Diffusion of features across
regional dialects. Wave, cascade, and gravity models of diffusion. The persistence
of regional dialect boundaries.
Associated reading:
• Trudgill ch. 8
Wednesday, August 3
Regional dialects of the US
Phonological and syntactic features distinguishing dialects of the US. Dialect
regions of the US: Mid-Atlantic, Midland, North, South, West, Canada.
Lab session
Correlations. Mapping and drawing isoglosses.
Associated reading:
• Your section of the Atlas of North American English (to be assigned 7/27)
Linguistics 102, Summer 2011
Instructor: Laurel MacKenzie
Monday, August 8
Language and dialect contact
Language choice in bilingual situations. Effects of contact on language. Language
shift. Contact languages: pidgins and creoles. Diffusion of features across dialects
and new dialect formation.
Review for final
Associated reading:
• Trudgill ch. 9
• Trudgill ch. 10
Wednesday, August 10
Final exam