LING 238: Sociolinguistics

Surveys a range of topics and approaches in the study of language variation and use in society. Includes insights from anthropology, social psychology, the study of discourse and power, conversation analysis, theories of style and styling, language contact and applied sociolinguistics.

Explores the nature of language change and diffusion. Organized thematically into sections exploring origins and theoretical assumptions; methods for the sociolinguistic study of the history of languages; linguistic and extra-linguistic variables; historical dialectology, language contact and diffusion; and attitudes to language.

"Language and social interaction (LSI) is an area of communication that studies how features of talk and text accomplish functions in social life such as basic processes of meaning-making; community and individual identity construction; and the privileging or disadvantaging of categories of people, kinds of actions, and organizational arrangements." -from the Editor's Introduction.

Divided into sections covering the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East, and Europe. Explains the patterns and systematicity that underlie language variation in use, as well as the ways in which alternations between different language varieties mark personal style, social power and national identity.

Presents views of linguistic variation in the diverse contexts that give it meaning and significance, across generations, social strata, and domains of interaction.

Includes entries on African American English, Afro-Seminole Creole, African American Discourse Features, African American Naming Patterns, and other topics.

Presents grammatical variation in spontaneous spoken English, mapping 235 features in 48 varieties of English and 26 English-based Pidgins and Creoles in eight Anglophone world regions. Provides perspectives on the data sets in the open-access Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English as well as large-scale comparisons and synopses.

This textbook describes patterns in the sentence structure, sound system, word formation and word use in AAE, and examines topics such as education, speech events in the secular and religious world, and the use of language in literature and the media to create black images. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)

Cambridge University Press, 2003

A comprehensive bibliography of publications from the past half century (pre-2012) that deal with the role of vernacular language varieties in the classroom.

A comprehensive introduction to the field of linguistics. Chapter 13 focuses on Syntax. (2017)

(2010)

Also available as an open-access website.