| Lectures
1 |
What is the sociology
of language? |
| |
- Knowledge of Language
- The study of language in the social context.
- Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language (Micro
vs. Macrolinguistic study of language use)
Main
Readings: Prescribed Text – Chapters 1,2,3
or Wardhaugh, Chapter 1
|
| Lectures 2 |
Typology of Language
Functions: |
| |
- Definition and scope
- Methodologies and perspectives regarding what constitutes
a speech community
- Variation: Horizontal vs. Vertical (Regional vs. Social)
Main Readings: Wardhaugh, Chapter 5
(pg.117-127); Prescribed Text – Chapters 8 |
| Lecture 3 |
Typology of Language
Situations: |
| |
Dialect vs. Language: clarifying
the issues that are used to differentiate the two.
- Creoles, Pidgins, Lingua Franca...
- Standard, Official, National Languages, etc
- Case studies in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
Main Readings: Wardhaugh, Chapters
2 &3; Prescribed Text – Chapters 26
& Walters, K. (1996) Gender, Identity and the political
economy of language use: Anglophone wives in
Tunisia in Language in Society, 25 (515-555) [RBC –copy;
Digital & DITTO]
|
| Lecture 4 |
Typology of Language
Situations cont’d: |
| |
- Multilingualism, Bilingualism,
Diglossia, Continua etc.
- Case studies of specific and typical situations.
Main Readings: Prescribed Text – chapters 27 &
35; Wardhaugh, Chapter 4
Ferguson (1959) Diglossia in Word (available at DITTO/DOCUSPOT)
Main Readings for Language situations in
the Caribbean
Winford, D.(1985) The concept of “diglossia”
in Caribbean Creole situations
in Language and Society 14 (345-356) [RBC photocopy &
DITTO]
Alleyne, M.(1985) A Linguistic Perspective on the Caribbean
[RBC Photocopy & DITTO]
|
| Lectures 5 |
Language Shift, Maintenance,
Endangerment and Death: |
| |
- How and why do languages
disappear?
- How and why do languages increase their influence in
societies?
Main Readings: Prescribed text – chapter 29 or Gal,
S. (1976) Peasant men can’t get wives: Language
change and sex roles in a bilingual community in Language
in Society 7 (1-16) [RBC –
photocopy & DITTO]
Nettle & Romaine (2000) Vanishing Voices Oxford University
Press (chapter 1) [available at DITTO]
|
| Lecture 6 |
6. English as a world
language |
| |
- Is English the ‘language
of the new global society’? -Discussion and analysis.
- Is the strength of English affecting other languages?
- Is the spread of English affecting the structure of
English?
Main Readings: Prescribed
text - chapter 31
Queen, R.M. & Rosina Lippi-Green (1998) English with
an accent: Language, ideology
and discrimination in the United States Book review in
Language in Society
27:4 (536-541) [loan copy - available from tutor]
McArthur, T. (1994) Organised Babel: English as a global
lingua franca. in
Georgetown University Round Table on Language and Linguistics
[loan copy –
available from tutor]
|
| Lecture 7 |
7. Language Planning
– applying findings of research into the sociology
of language (how Language Planning relates to other issues
already examined in course) |
| |
- Status Planning
- Corpus Planning
- Case studies: What can make language planning fail
or succeed
Main Readings: Prescribed Text -
Chapter 26 & Wardhaugh - Chapter 15
(reading on cases – available on loan from tutor)
|
| Lecture 8 |
8. Language Attitudes: |
| |
- Approaches to the study
of Language Attitudes and their impact on language functions.
- The social consequences of attitudes to language and
differences in language functions.
Main Readings: Prescribed Text –
Chapters 23, 24
Rickford, J (1983) Standard and non-standard language
attitudes in the Creole
continuum in S.C.L. Occasional Papers, School of Education,
UWI [1 O/S, 2
WIC & DITTO]
|
