Modular facultative lecture:Sociolinguistics 3200-L1-MPF-SOC

The course aims to present problems related to the social conditioning of language variation having its roots in such factors as class, status, networks, mobility, sex, ethnicity, age, and regional identity. The social pressures are discussed in correlation with internal reasons of linguistic variation, which altogether determine the shaping, functioning and diffusing of language forms. The influence of external factors on the use of linguistic structures is interpreted according to selected frameworks of communication theory, including, e.g., accommodation theory, politeness theory, and social networks theory, which are applied in contemporary (and historical) sociolinguistics to assess and understand linguistic diversity in social contexts. Special emphasis is put on empirical aspects of sociolinguistic research linked with fieldwork procedures and methods of data collection and analysis. Selected topics involve:

1. Processes of language variation and change
definition of language variation and change; social (external) and linguistic (internal) factors; grammaticalization; language change typology (sporadic vs. systemic shifts; changes from 'above' vs. change from 'below', therapeutic changes, drag chains vs. push chains)

2. Interaction of linguistic and extralinguistic variables
phonological variables; grammatical variables; lexical variables; discursive variables; social variation: interaction of social class, status, networks, mobility, sex, and age; social networks theory (dense vs. loose networks; measures of network bonds; influence of network ties on language variation; social networks and ethnicity); classical case studies (New York, Martha's Vineyard, Norwich, Belfast, Reading, Detroit)

3.Development of English from the socio-historical perspective
influence of social rank, gender and age on the development of Present-Day English morpho-syntactic and pragmatic structures (emergence of personal, reflexive and relative pronouns, auxiliary do/did, single negation, comparison of adjectives, loss of inversion in adverbial clauses, elimination of the -th ending in 3rd person sg. verbs, etc., on the example of diachronic corpus studies)

4. Methods in sociolinguistic research
class markers, indexing social class, judgement vs. random sampling; fieldwork methodology: participant observation, interview, questionnaire ; language attitude research (direct vs. indirect methods, matched-guise technique, etc.)

5. Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT)
socio-psychological assumptions in SAT; upward/downward convergence vs. divergence; accommodation vs. external (social) factors (power relations, age, gender, in-group, out-group); code choice (choosing a variety; code-mixing, code-switching)

6. Politeness theory
power vs. solidarity vs. distance; positive/negative face; face threatening acts (FTA); weight of imposition; relation of politeness with social power, distance, age and gender; politeness vs. high and low-context cultures; politeness as a marker of cultural identity

7. Gender-related differences in language use
reasons for gender variation in language; differences in word choice, syntax, phonology, topic choice, pragmatic particles, style; gender and linguistic politeness

8. Linguistic varieties: standard languages, dialects, vernaculars
standardisation processes; lingua franca; syntactic and phonological features of English dialects; isoglosses ; patois ; vernacular ; koine ; accent

9. Pidgins and creoles
language birth; language death; language progress and decay; diaglossia; pidgins and creoles: theories of origin, evolution, structure, linguistic features, examples, post-creole continuum

Requirements : regular attendance at classes (maximum 2 unexcused absences), oral presentations, final (written) test