Advanced Sociolinguistics

This course is a capstone course, aimed at building on knowledge acquired over the course of a linguistics major, and applying that to the empirical analysis of language in its social context, or Sociolinguistics. Students will read and critically discuss a combination of foundational and contemporary sociolinguistic studies, to gain an understanding of way the field has developed as well as future directions. Topics covered may include: methodologies in sociolinguistic research; variation and change in phonetics, morphosyntax and discourse; language production and perception; monolingual and multilingual contexts in different parts of the world; and language variation and social inequality. Students will gain the skills to carry out an original research project, and will be guided through the development of this project through scaffolded assessment.