Time Schedule:
Alicia Beckford Wassink
LING 580
Seattle Campus
Advanced study in current theories of syntax, semantics, phonology, or morphology. Can be repeated for credit.
Class description
Autumn 2001
This course is intended primarily for students desiring advanced coursework in sociolinguistics, or in other areas of linguistics or language study related to historical linguistics. Advanced Sociolinguistics introduces the student to perspectives on language change and its mechanisms, relating these to the social context of language use in the speech community. Both language-internal and language-external (or social) factors prompting language change (language users are people, after all!) are examined. Topics covered this quarter revolve around those typically featured in sociolinguistic research, particularly beginning with research by Weinreich, Labov and Herzog in the 1960s into phonological change: mergers and splits, chain-shifts, and diffusion of change through the lexicon. We will also explore the role that language contact plays in language change, and current thinking regarding language death.
Prerequisites: LING 432 or instructor's permission.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
