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This class investigates the interaction of language with society and the individual in the US-American context by analyzing how language (and its use) establishes power, ethnicity, gender, and markers of identity. It explores historical and contemporary perspectives on how language works in sociocultural contexts and draws on major approaches in sociolinguistics to understand the ways language and cultural practices are intertwined. Students are also introduced to linguistic diversity in US-American society today and methodology for sociolinguistic analysis of conversations. Topics include: bi- and multilingual America, social meaning and linguistic variability, prescriptivism and language attitudes, linguistic relativity, and data collection in sociolinguistics. |
