Course materials © for/by Peter L. Patrick. May contain copyright material used for educational purposes. Please respect copyright.

 Last updated 18 January 2012

LG 102, 2011-2012

Foundations of Sociolinguistics

 

Lecture on Thursdays 13:00-14:00 in LTB-01

Weeks 16-20 (Jan 19 to Feb. 16)

 

Multilingualism, Language Contact & Language Change

Prof Peter L Patrick

Office: Room 4.328, ext. 2088, email: patrickp AT essex.ac.uk

Webpage: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp

Or via the CMR, http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/

 

Course Director:

Dr Wyn Johnson

wyn AT essex.ac.uk

 

Lecturers:   

Jenny Amos

jamos@ ...

Weeks 2-6:     13 Oct – 10 Nov 2011

 

Dr Enam Al-Wer

enama@...

Weeks 7-11:   17 Nov – 15 Dec 2011

 

Prof Peter Patrick

patrickp@ ...

Weeks 16-20: 19 Jan  – 16 Feb 2012

 

Dr Rebecca Clift

rclift@ ...

Weeks 21-25:  23 Feb – 22 Mar 2012

 

 

 

 

Class teachers:

Salifou Faal

sfaal@ …

Term 1

 

Konstantina Fotiou

cfotio@...

Term 1

 

Awad Al-Hasan

aaamal@...

Term 2

 

Ariel Vázquez Carranza         

avazqu@...

Term 2

 

 

week 16

mon jan 19

Code-Switching

week 17

mon jan 26

Societal Multilingualism

week 18

mon feb  2

Language Shift and Death

week 19

mon feb  9

Language Evolution: Gradual Change

week 20

mon feb 16

Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages

 

 

Primary Textbook:

Peter Trudgill, 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (Penguin).

[Note: Earlier editions have different chapter structures etc. – please try to get this, or a later, one! ]

 

Other Textbooks:

Notice that several readings in this section of the course are taken from the two books listed below - by Mesthrie et al. (2000), and Meyerhoff (2006). (Yes, they have the same title!) These two are good general textbooks on sociolinguistics, and are used in the 2nd-year survey course LG232 Sociolinguistics next year, so it may be worthwhile getting them now.

 

§    R Mesthrie, J Swann, A Deumert & W Leap. 2009. Introducing sociolinguistics. Edinburgh. [P 126.I6]  [also readable online]

§    M Meyerhoff 2006. Introducing sociolinguistics. Routledge. [P 126.M4]  [also readable online]

 

I can also recommend a very interesting little book which takes on and illuminates some of the things most people think they know about language:

§    Bauer, L & Trudgill, P (Eds). 1998. Language Myths.

 

Other readings are listed below – a couple of changes have been made since the handout you were given at the beginning of the  year.

 

Assignments: see below

             

Week 16   mon jan 19

·       Code-Switching. What is code-switching? How is it different from other kinds of language choice? (Style, register, borrowing, variation) Is it an individual or group activity? What kinds of people code-switch, in what situations – and why? What levels of language do speakers switch between? Verbal repertoires and a continuum of language choice. Sample data & case studies.

  • Main Reading:

Peter Trudgill, 2000. Sociolinguistics, Chap. 5, “Language and Context” (esp. the second half).

·       Further Reading:

M Meyerhoff 2006. Introducing sociolinguistics Chap. 6, “Multilingualism & language choice”, pp115-126.

R Mesthrie et al, 2009. Introducing sociolinguistics.  Chap. 5, "Language choice and code-switching," 148-183.

R Fasold 1984. Sociolinguistics of Society. Chap. 7, "Language Choice," 180-212.

  • Notes online:

o    Examples of Code-switching (English, Spanish, Italian, Amharic, Jamaican Creole)

o    More examples of Code-switching (German, English, Spanish), and even more (English, Spanish)...

o    ...and Swahili/English/Jamaican examples

o    and Bengali examples (from S. Al-Azami 2005, Language Maintenance and Shift among the Bangladeshis in Manchester, pp 56-7)

o    A continuum of language choice

 

Week 17   mon jan 26

·       Societal Multilingualism. Is mono-lingualism ‘normal’? or a disability? Is multi-lingualism a ‘problem’ for nations? What links language to nation, ethnic group, race, & power? What can be accomplished by deliberate planning of language resources? How well does it work? Examples & case studies.

  • Main Reading: 

Trudgill 2000, Chap. 7, “Language and Nation”.

M Meyerhoff 2006. Introducing sociolinguistics Chap. 6, “Multilingualism & language choice,” pp.102-115.

·       Further Reading:

R Fasold 1984. Sociolinguistics of Society. Chap. 1, "Societal multilingualism". Examines language, nationalism and development; case studies of Paraguay, India.

S Romaine 2000. Language in Society. Chap. 2, “Language choice,” esp. 32-54. Defining ‘mother tongue’; language censuses; domains; diglossia.

R Wardhaugh 2002. An introduction to sociolinguistics.  Chap. 15, “Language planning.” Types of LP; many brief case studies.

J Fishman 1989. "Language Ethnicity and Racism," in N Coupland & A Jaworski, eds. 2009. The New Sociolinguistics Reader (Palgrave), pp. 435-446.

  • Notes online:

o    Language planning

o    Case study: Peru

o    Case study: Paraguay

o    Should small languages become official languages?

o    Language numbers in world perspective: Papua New Guinea

 

Week 18   mon feb 2

·       Language Shift and Death. How does language death happen? Are the world’s indigenous languages really disappearing rapidly? Is linguistic diversity a useful thing? How can language shift be reversed? Are local dialects at risk too? What role can education and mass media play? What linguistic rights & responsibilities do majority- & minority- language speakers have? Case studies.

·       Main Reading: 

Trudgill 2000, Chap. 10, “Language and Humanity.”

R Mesthrie et al, 2009. Introducing sociolinguistics.  Chap. 8, “Language Contact 1: Maintenance, shift and death,” esp pp. 253-278.

·       Further Reading:

Matthias Brenzinger, 1997. “Language contact and language displacement.” In Florian Coulmas, ed., The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, 273-284. Social settings for a language replacing another; how shift happens.

Colette Grinevald Craig, 1997. “Language contact and language degeneration.” In Florian Coulmas, ed., The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, 257-270. Metaphors of language death; somewhat technical descriptions; fieldwork w/speakers of dying languages.

Bauer, L & Trudgill, P (Eds). 1998. Language Myths. N. Evans, Myth 19: “Aborigines speak a primitive language.” It’s a myth!

Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. 2000. Vanishing Voices.

·       Book-length treatments:

Matthias Brenzinger, ed. 2007. Language diversity endangered. Mouton.  [P 138.L2]

David Crystal, 2000. Language Death.  [P 138.C7]

Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. 2000. Vanishing Voices.  [P 138.N4]

·       Notes online:

o    Notes on language shift and death

o    Case study of Chinook and Chinook Jargon

o    Factors safe-guarding some languages of Papua New Guinea

o    Factors predicting ethnolinguistic vitality (=language survival)

·       Weblinks – Language Loss and Death

§  Linguistic Society of America www.lsadc.org

o   LSA Guide to Endangered Languages

§  EMELD – document and/or learn (about) endangered languages

§  the Rosetta Project – online collection archiving human languages

§  Links for North American Indian Languages from my LG448 coursepage: see “Week 16 weblinks”

§  Case study – Tasmania:

o    www.tasmanianaboriginal.com.au/index.htm History links from a Tasmanian Aboriginal organisation

o    www.justpacific.com/tasmania/first.html Summary of Tasmanian history: early contacts with Europeans

·       Weblinks – Linguistic Human Rights:

§  Linguistic Society of America. www.lsadc.org

o   LSA 1995 Statement on Language Rights (5th under “Statements”)

§  Foundation for Endangered Languages website: http://www.ogmios.org

§  “Linguistic Human Rights: A sociolinguistic introduction”, http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/lhr/linguistichumanrights.htm

§  Language and Asylum Research Group

·     Guidelines for the Use of Language Analysis in relation to Questions of National Origin in Refugee Cases (2004)

                                               

Week 19   mon feb 9

·       Language Evolution: Gradual Change. What do we know about the origins of human language? What do myths and evolution tell us? How do languages change? Do sounds change gradually, spreading by contact, or abruptly? Family-trees and genetic linguistics. Changes in features; mergers & splits. Changes in meaning.

  • Main Reading: 

Trudgill 2000, Chap. 9, “Language and geography.”

Bauer, L & Trudgill, P (Eds). 1998. Language Myths. M. Montgomery, Myth 9: “In the Appalachians they speak like Shakespeare.”

·       Further Reading:

Zdenek Salzmann. 1993. Language, culture and society. Boulder: Westview. Chapter 6.

A Radford, M Atkinson, D Britain, H Clahsen & A Spencer, 1999. Linguistics: An introduction, Chap. 4, “Sound change.”

J Aitchison 1992. Language Change: Progress or decay?

A McMahon 1994. Understanding Language Change.

RL Trask 1996. Historical Linguistics.

·       Notes online:

o    Notes on language origins

o    Indo-European languages – evolution and maps

o    Indo-European family tree – the Centum group

o    Chart of the Northern Cities chain shift in the USA

o    More info on this Shift, and on Mergers (technical!)

 

 

 

Week 20   mon feb 16

·       Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages – or, Abrupt Change. How do languages change suddenly when societies collide? What are pidgins? Creoles? How are they formed, and how do they develop? Do they resemble first- and second-language acquisition? What social functions do they serve? What problems do their speakers have? Audio-/video samples, maps.

  • Main Reading: 

Trudgill 2000, Chap. 9, “Language and contact.”

R Mesthrie et al, 2000. Introducing sociolinguistics.  Chap. 9, “Language Contact 2: Pidgins, Creoles and New Englishes,” esp. 279-304.

·       Further Reading:

J Arends, P Muysken & N Smith, eds 1994. Pidgins & Creoles: An introduction, Chap. 1-2.

JR Rickford & J McWhorter 1997. "Language contact and language generation: Pidgins and Creoles", in F Coulmas, ed. Handbook of Sociolinguistics: 238-256.

·       Notes online:

o    Link to the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole language Structures (APiCS) here
o    Notes on “Pidgin and Creole Languages: Origins and Relationships.” PL Patrick 2001.
o    Notes on Genetic Linguistics – or, What the birth of Pidgins and Creoles is NOT like!

o    Sample texts from Jamaican Creole

o    Examples of typical Creole linguistic features

 

                                     

Assignments – Essay questions drawn from this section of the course:

A:     This assignment is due at noon on Friday of Week 20 (February 17th 2012)  Length: 1000 words.

What are the most important linguistic human rights that immigrants to the UK should have? (Assume that standard English is not their native or dominant language.) You may want to refer to some of the major documents which include language rights:

http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/lg474/LinguisticRightsDocumentsOnline.htm

Briefly focus on ONE area in which there are difficulties with language rights, and give several steps that might help resolve them, e.g.,

- Education in multilingual British (or other) communities, see

§  P Baker & J Eversley, eds., 2000. Multilingual Capital: The languages of London’s schoolchildren  [P 138.M8]  (Battlebridge)

§  García, Ofelia, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas & María E. Torres-Guzmán, eds. 2006. Imagining multilingual schools: Language in education and glocalization. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. [LC 3715; available from the library as an e-book]

- Discrimination in the workplace, see

§  C Roberts, E Davies & T Jupp 1992 Language and discrimination: A Study of communication in multi-ethnic workplaces [P 90.R6] (Longman)

Please feel free to draw on your own or your family’s language history, and any experiences of immigration, if they are relevant.

 

B:      This assignment is due noon on  Monday of Week 30 (23rd April 2012).  Length: 3000 words.

Briefly describe a situation of language endangerment, drawing on class readings. (Do not simply RE-describe one that is described on the coursepage.) Be sure to address as many of the following questions as you can, in an integrated fashion:

·            What are the relevant languages spoken? Who are the groups involved?

·            What is the endangered language’s official status?

·            What areas of life is each language characteristically used in (e.g. government, education, kitchen, religion, etc.)?

·            What are the attitudes of different groups towards the use of these languages?

·            What are some of the functions each language performs for its users?

·            Describe some of the local factors that might affect ethnolinguistic vitality.

·            Has any type of language planning (LP) been conducted? Is LP needed?

·            What type of LP has been done? Try to distinguish corpus-planning from status- and acquisition-planning approaches (see coursepage notes).

·            What were/are the successes or failures of the language planning effort?

 

 

For advice on writing essay assignments in sociolinguistics, please look at the departmental advice given in the Undergraduate Handbook (here), and any other sources you are directed to by your course instructor (Wyn Johnson) and class teachers.

Helpfully, the Dept. has put together a new webpage with advice and resources – please look here (Dept advice) and here (my materials).

Peter L. Patrick's Course Page

Peter L. Patrick's home page

Last updated on 18 January 2012