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The entire history of New Zealand English can be tracked in the Origin of New Zealand English corpus (ONZE), housed at the University of Canterbury. Using this extensive collection of spoken language, we can compare the accents of the very earliest New Zealand born settlers to those of contemporary speakers, to examine how New Zealand English has changed. This allows us to answer interesting questions not only about New Zealand English but also about language change in general. This course has a practical focus which will provide hands-on experience in the analysis of New Zealand English. Students are trained in sociolinguistic methodology and in how to use the ONZE corpus, and are given the opportunity to conduct their own piece of research on language variation and/or change in New Zealand.
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.
By the end of the course, students will (1) understand how to collect variable language data (2) understand the principles underlying the transcription and coding of linguistic data, (3) be able to display complex data in tabular and graphical form, (4) be able to critically evaluate rival.
LING206 or LING207 or any two of LING215-LING217
Kevin Watson
Tagliamonte, S; Variationist Sociolinguistics: change, observation, interpretation ; Oxford: Wiley -Blackmore, 2012.
Kiesling, S; Linguistic variation and change ; dinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Library portalThe course outline is available on LEARN (only for students enrolled in this course). LEARN
Domestic fee $1,288.00
International fee $5,600.00
* 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 Language, Social and Political Sciences .