Anna Fenyvesi

Advanced sociolinguistics

seminar for 2nd through 5th year students

Instructor: Dr. Anna Fenyvesi

Prerequisite: Introduction to sociolinguistics

Course description:

The course aims to provide a deeper understanding of sociolinguistic issues and a hands-on introduction to the most important methods of sociolinguistic research and analysis for the student with a basic familiarity with this subfield of linguistics.

Students will be required to read sociolinguistic articles as well as carry out an empirical sociolinguistic project of their own. Discussions of the articles and student projects in the making will form the main backbone of the class sessions, supplemented by presentations of further articles on the topic of the class session by students. Students will also write up the results of their individual research in a 7-10 page paper as well as give a presentation on their research and findings at one of the last two class sessions.

Requirements:

3rd year students: Research project and paper (85 %); Attendance and participation (15%)

4th and 5th year students: Presentation of article (20%); Research project and paper (70%); Attendance and participation (10%)

Grading:

• 89 - 100%: excellent (5)
• 76 - 88%: good (4)
• 63 - 75%: average (3)
• 51 - 62%: pass (2)
• 0 - 50%: fail (1)

Readings: See below. C&al = J. K. Chambers et al. 2002

Schedule:

• Week 1: Introduction etc.
• Week 2: The variation paradigm
  Reading: Wardhaugh 1992
  Presentation: Labov 1972
• Week 3: Fieldwork
  Reading: C&al 1
  Presentation: Labov 1984
• Week 4: Language with an attitude
  Readings: C&al 2
  Presentations: Davis & Houck 1992, Labov 1973
  Note: Project topic due
• Week 5: Apparent time
  Reading: C&al 12
  Presentation: Bailey et al. 1991
  Note: Project proposal due
• Week 6: Variation and change
  Reading: C&al 14
  Presentation: Coelho 1997
• Week 7: Class
  Reading: C&al 16
  Presentation: Huspek 1986
• Week 8: Gender
  Readings: C&al 17
  Presentations: Brown 1995, Gordon 1997
  (Note: data collection for project should be completed)
• Week 9: Accommodation
  Readings: Giles & Smith 1979
  Presentation: Trudgill 1986
• Week 10: Language and disadvantage
  Readings: Bernstein 1972, Derd‡k & Varga 1996
  (Note: analysis of data should be completed)
• Week 11: Pluricentric languages
  Readings: Clyne 1992, Leitner 1992
  Presentation: Lansty‡k 1995
• Week 12: Project presentations
  Note: Papers due
• Week 13: Project presentations
• Week 14: Conclusion

Bibliography:

• Bailey, Guy, Tom Wikle, Jan Tillery, and Lori Sand. 1991. The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3:241-264.
• Bernstein, Basil. 1972. Social class, language and socialization. In: Giglioli, Pier Paolo, ed. Language and social context. London: Penguin, 157-178.
• Clyne, Michael. 1992. Pluricentric languages – Introduction. In: Clyne, Michael, ed. Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1-9.
• Coelho, Gail M. 1997. Anglo-Indian English: A nativized variety of Indian English. Language in Society 26: 561-589.
• Davis, Lawrence M. and Charles L. Houck. 1992. Can she be prestigious and nice at the same time? Perceptions of female speech in Hoosierdom. American Speech 67: 115-122.
• Derd‡k, Tibor & Aranka Varga. 1996. Az iskola nyelvezete – idegen nyelv. Regio, 7(2):150-175.
• Giles, Howard, and Philip M. Smith. 1979. Accommodation theory: Optimal levels of convergence. In: Howard Giles and Robert St Clair, eds. Language and social psychology. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 45-65.
• Gordon, Elizabeth. 1997. Sex, speech, and stereotypes: Why women use prestige forms more than men. Language in society, 26(1):47-63.
• Huspek, Michael R. 1986. Linguistic variation, context, and meaning: A case of -ing/in' variation in North American workers' speech. Language in Society 15: 149-164.
• Labov, William. 1972. The social stratification of (r) in New York City department stores. In: Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 43-69.
• Labov, William. 1973. General attitudes towards the speech of New York City. In: Richard W. Bailey and Jay L. Robinson, eds. Varieties of present-day English. New York: Macmillan, 274-292.
• Labov, William. 1984. Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In: Baugh, John & Joel Sherzer, eds. Language in use: Readings in sociolinguistics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 28-53.
• Lansty‡k, Istv‡n. 1995. A magyar nyelv kšzpontjai. Magyar Tudom‡ny, 40(10):1170-1185.
• Leitner, Gerhard. 1992. English as a pluricentric language. In: Clyne, Michael, ed. Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 179-238.
• Trudgill, Peter. 1986. Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell. Chapter 1: Accommodation, pp. 1-38. (Reprinted in Michael D. Linn, ed. 1998. Handbook of dialects and language variation. New York: Academic Press, pp. 307-342.)
• Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1992. Chapter 7 – Variation studies: Some findings and issues. In: An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 160-191.

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