Sociolinguistics

Course description: To provide students a general introduction to sociolinguistics, the course presents general concerns and basic concepts in language and variation, language and society, and sociolinguistics and sociology of language, as well as scientific investigation. The course first deals with language variation according to users and the inherent variety. It explores factors that contribute to language change. It includes languages and dialects, pidgins and creoles, codes and code-switch, and speech communities. The second part of the course deals with the variation according to use. The topics include language attitudes, ethnography of speaking, pragmatics and politeness, and analyzing conversations.