Fall 2004

719 Broadway, Rm. 433 
Tuesday 2:00-4:45

Instructor:  John Singler john.singler@nyu.edu
719 Broadway, Rm. 422 998-7959
Office Hours: Mon 2-3, Wed 2:30-4, and other times (by appointment)

Sociolinguistics encompasses a panoply of approaches to the study of language.  The present course sets aside the Chomskyan construct of an ideal speaker-hearer in a homogeneous speech community in order to examine real speakers in real speech communities.  The goal of the course is an introduction to sociolinguistic theory, with special reference to the following:

Readings 

The readings consist of one book and many articles.  The book is the following:

All other readings for the course are available in the Departmental Reading Room.

Course requirements

a)         Three short papers during the course of the semester.  Each paper will be linked to a particular set of readings in the course, specifically those found in (a) the third module, (b) the fourth module, and (c) either the fifth or sixth module (the choice is yours).  For each of these papers, you will have a choice.  You can either answer a proposed question, or you can develop a paper on your own topic, provided you get the topic approved in advance.   (60% of the grade)

b)         For one of the readings in the first, second, and fifth/sixth module, write a one-page reaction to one of the articles.  In writing it, you can assume the reader’s familiarity with the article.  Your reaction can articulate limitations of the work in question, or it can use the work in question as a starting point for further discussion.   (20% of the grade)

c)         A project, the research for which will be done as a group.  The project will culminate with a written report, done individually or by one or more groups.  (20% of the grade)

Course content

The course will address the following topics:

Calendar

Module 1.  Language and world view

Readings for 9/7

Whorf, Benjamin Lee.  1956. [1941.]  The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language. Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings [edited by John B. Carroll], 134-59.  Cambridge: MIT Press.

Hill, Jane, and Bruce Mannheim.  1992.  Language and world view.  Annual Review of Anthropology 21.381-406.

Module 2.  Communicative competence/The ethnography of speaking

Readings for 9/14

Hymes, Dell.  1967.  Models of the interaction of language and social setting.  Journal of Social Issues 23.8-28.

Basso, Keith.  1972.  "To give up on words”:  Silence in Western Apache culture.  In Language and social context, ed. by Pier Paolo Giglioli, 67-86.  Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

Irvine, Judith.  1990.  Registering affect:  Heteroglossia in the linguistic expression of emotion.  In Language and the politics of emotion, ed. By Catherine A. Lutz and Lila Abu-Lughod, 127-61.  Cambridge: CUP.

Module 3.  The role of variation in language

Readings for 9/21

Fischer, John.  1958.  Social influences on the choice of a linguistic variant.  Word 14.47-56.

Labov, William.  1972.  The social motivation of a sound change.  Sociolinguistic patterns, Chap. 1, 1-42.  Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.

Labov, William.  1972.  The social stratification of (r) in New York City department stores.  Sociolinguistic patterns, Chap. 2, 43-69.  Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. 

Fowler, Joy, 1987.  The social stratification of (r) in New York City department stores, 24 years after Labov.  NYU ms. 

Readings for 9/28

Labov, William.  1972.  The study of language in its social context.  In Sociolinguistics, ed. By J. B. Pride and Janet Holmes, 180-202.  Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

Labov, William.  2001.  The Darwinian paradox.  Principles of linguistic change, Vol. 2: Social factors, Chap. 1, 3-34.  Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Labov, William.  1989.  The child as linguistic historian.  Language Variation and Change 1.85-97.

Readings for 10/5

Labov, William.  1994.  The study of change in progress:  Observations in apparent time.  Principles of linguistic change, Vol. 1: Internal factors, Chap. 3, 43-72.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Labov, William.  1994.  The study of change in progress:  Observations in real time.  Principles of linguistic change, Vol. 1: Internal factors, Chap. 4, 73-112.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE 10/8.  It is based on the readings in the third module.

Module 4.  Language and identity: 

a.         Sex, gender, and language

Readings for 10/12

Brown, R., and A. Gilman.  1972.  The pronouns of power and solidarity.  In Language and social context, ed. by Pier Paolo Giglioli, 252-82.  Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

Trudgill, Peter.  1983 [revised from 1972 Language and Society article].  Sex and covert prestige:  Linguistic change in the urban dialect of Norwich.  On dialect: Social and geographic perspectives, Chap. 10, 169-185.  New York:  NYU Press. 

Gal, Susan.  1998. [1978.]  Peasant men can't get wives: Language change and sex roles in a bilingual community.  In Language and Gender: A reader, ed. by Jennifer Coates, 147-59.  Oxford: Blackwell.

O'Barr, William, and Bowman K. Atkins.  1980.  "'Women's language” or “powerless language”?  In Women & language in literature and society, ed. By Sally McConnell-Ginet, Sally, Ruth A. Borker and Nelly Furman, 93-110.  New York:  Praeger and Greenwood.

Readings for 10/19

Eckert, Penelope, and Sally McConnell-Ginet.  1992.  Think practically and look locally:  Language and gender as community-based practice.  Annual Review of Anthropology 21.461-90.

James, Deborah.  1996.  Women, men and prestige speech forms: a critical review.  In Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice, ed. by Victoria L. Bergvall, Janet M. Bing, and Alice F. Freed, 98-125.  New York: Longman.

Kulick, Don.  2000.  Gay and lesbian language.  Annual Review of Anthropology 29.243-85.

b.         Age and language

Readings for 10/26

Bucholtz, Mary.  1999.  “Why be normal?”  Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls.  Language in Society 28.203-23.

Sankoff, Gillian.  In press.  Adolescents, young adults, and the critical period:  Two case studies from “Seven Up.”  In Sociolinguistic Variation, ed. by Carmen Fought.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.  http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~gillian/PAPERS/Macaulay/MacaulayFINAL.t3.pdf

SECOND SHORT PAPER DUE 11/5.  It is based on the readings in the fourth module.

Module 5.  Language and community:  The linguistic role of social networks

Readings for 11/2, 11/9, 11/16

Milroy, Lesley.  1987.  Language and social networks, second edition.  Oxford: Blackwell.

November 12-13: Workshop on Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Age

Module 6.  Languages in contact:  Bilingualism, diglossia, and code-switching

Readings for 11/23

Romaine, Suzanne.  1989.  Introduction to the study of bilingualism and The bilingual speech community.  Bilingualism, Chaps. 1 and 2, 1-77.  Oxford:  Blackwell.  

Ferguson, Charles.  1959.  Diglossia.  Word 15.325-40.

Ferguson, Charles.  1991.  Diglossia revisited.  Southwest Journal of Linguistics, Special Issue, Studies in Diglossia, 10.214-34.

Blom, Jan-Petter, and John J. Gumperz.  1986. [1966].  Social meaning in linguistic structures:  Code-switching in Norway.  In Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication, ed. by John J. Gumperz and Dell Hymes, 407-34.  Oxford: Blackwell.

PROJECT REPORT DUE 11/30.

Readings for 11/30

Milroy, Lesley, and Pieter Muysken.  1995.  Introduction:  Code-switching and bilingualism research.  In One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching, ed. by Lesley Milroy and Pieter Muysken, 1-14.  Cambridge: CUP.

Auer, Peter. 1995. The pragmatics of code-switching: A sequential approach.  In One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching, ed. by Lesley Milroy and Pieter Muysken, 115-35.  Cambridge: CUP.

Rampton, Ben.  1998.  Language crossing and the redefinition of reality.  In Code-switching in conversation, ed. by Peter Auer, 290-320. London: Routledge.

THIRD SHORT PAPER DUE 12/13.  It is based on the readings in the fifth and/or sixth module.        

Module 7.  Conclusion

12/7