LING 2030 - Introduction to Socio-Linguistics

Credits: 4
Hours/Week: Lecture 4 Lab None
Course Description: This course looks at the interrelationship of language and society. It looks at the social aspects of language, including usage, attitudes towards usage of various varieties of language, and issues of language planning and policy. Students will examine factors that affect their choice of language and how language affects the hearers perception of the speaker.
MnTC Goals
5 History/Social/Behavioral Science

Prerequisite(s): Course placement into college-level English and Reading OR completion of ENGL 0950  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of RDNG 0940  with a grade of C or higher and qualifying English Placement Exam OR completion of RDNG 0950  with a grade of C or higher and ENGL 0090  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of ESOL 0051  with a grade of C or higher and ESOL 0052  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content

1. Geographical variation: Regional dialects Examples of regional variation Reading Linguistic Atlases isogloss lines Dialect Continuums
2. Language Contact Borrowing Code-switching Bilingualism Diglossia Linguistic Dominance
3. Language Planning and Policy oTitle VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
   • Case Law and Language Policy
   • LEP Education, Interpreting, and other social policies
4. Language and Context oHigh and Low varieties oDiglossia
5. Language and Gender oGendered features oGendered language
   • Language and power
   • Whorfian Hypothesis
6. Language and ethnic Identity
   • Origins and features of AAVE
   • Language and ethnic identity abroad
7. Language in Social Interactions
   • The structure of conversations
   • Speech acts and inference
   • Ethnography of speaking
   • Pragmatic scripts
   • Grice¿s maxims
8. Perception of a standard variety
   • Perception of a Standard Variety
   • Standardization of Language
   • Development of Writing Systems
9. Pidginization, creolization, and the post-creole continuum
10. Register and Stylistic Variation
11. Social dialects
12. The field of socio-linguistics

1. Explain a speakers choice of language in a data set based on social status, race, ethnicity, gender, age, social-grouping, and other socio-linguistic variables.
2. Analyze language policy in the United States and abroad today and in the past.
3. Describe the social significance of a language variety.
4. Describe methods used currently and historically to record language variation.
5. Describe a language variation continuum.
6. Compare and contrast differing theories regarding the origin and/or use of various language varieties.
7. Analyze the effect of different varieties of language on the hearer.
8. Propose and debate a language policy.
9. Replicate or conduct an experiment using one method of data collection and analysis.
10. Compare and contrast equivalent structures in different varieties of language.
11. Identify examples of phonological, syntactic, lexical, and pragmatic language variation

05. 02. Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.

05. 03. Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.

05. 04. Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.

Courses and Registration