LING310-11S2 (C) Semester Two 2011

Variationist Sociolinguistics

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 11 July 2011
End Date: Sunday, 13 November 2011
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 22 July 2011
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 7 October 2011

Description

This course explores sociolinguistic variation, theory and research methodology. The course will generally include research-based analysis of New Zealand English, with access to the Origins of New Zealand English (ONZE) database.

Variation in language is not just random, but can be structured. This variation often leads to change, such that one generation of speakers can sound different from the next. This course explores linguistic variability and examines (a) how language varies according to a whole range of different factors (e.g. speaker gender and social class, and e.g. how the connections people can be correlated with particular linguistic forms), and (b) how language changes over time.  For (b) we will compare the speech of older speakers with that of younger speakers, and we will also use archive data so we can go much further back in time.  The course will include practical research-based analysis of New Zealand English, with access to the Origins of New Zealand English database.

Prerequisites

LING206 or LING207 or any two of LING215-LING217

Restrictions

LING203, LING303

Course Coordinator

Kevin Watson

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Test - In-class 18 Aug 2011 20%
Research paper 13 Oct 2011 30%
Presentation 13 Oct 2011 10%
Final Exam 40%

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Kiesling, Scott; Linguistic Variation and Change ; Edinborough University Press, 2011.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,191.00

International fee $5,175.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Languages and Cultures .

All LING310 Occurrences

  • LING310-11S2 (C) Semester Two 2011