LING 4040 - Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Variation is an integral feature of any language. Language varies within speakers, across speakers, and over time. A great deal of this variation is socially structured, meaning that there exist meaningful interrelationships between language variation and social factors such as region, age, gender, class, ethnicity, identity, style, etc. In this class, we will systematically explore how language variation reflects social structures and constructs social identities. We will also discuss how standard language ideologies have been used to invalidate ways of speaking and dis-empower speakers of marginalized varieties. Students will also be introduced to basic quantitative concepts and methods used in sociolinguistics research.