AAE28C THE SOCIAL VARIATION OF LANGUAGE

The course introduces students to sociolinguistic methods of studying language, with a focus on the English language. Students will study regional, social and stylistic variation in English and explore the causes and consequences of language variation and change. Students will critically examine how issues of power come into play through the interaction of language with gender, education, and policy making, particularly in bilingual and multilingual contexts. Discussion of issues such as language maintenance and language shift; the emergence of new language varieties such as pidgins and creoles, and the impact of globalization and new communicative orders on the status of languages will also be covered.