LING 535:
Advanced Sociolinguistics
Instructor: Alicia
Beckford Wassink Rm:
Art 003
Office: Padelford
A217 Time: T,Th 10:30-12:20
Office Hours: Tu 1:00-2:00 and by
appointment
Office Phone: 616-9589
Dept. Phone: 543-2046 (Dept. of
Linguistics Office)
Email: wassink@u.washington.edu
Webpage: http://faculty.washington.edu/~wassink
Course
Description:
This course provides advanced coursework in
sociolinguistics, particularly sociolinguistic scholarship in to historical language
change. We build familiarity with
sociolinguistic perspectives on language change and its mechanisms, which
relate language change to the social context of language use in the speech
community. We focus primarily on
the identification and study of changes in progress, chain shifts and
mergers. Both language-internal
and language-external (social) factors prompting language change are
examined. Readings center around
the development of sociolinguistic theoretization into language change, begun by
Weinreich, Labov and Herzog in the 1960s. This course is the final course in the sociolinguistics
graduate sequence, but is complemented by LING580C: Change across the lifespan
seminar, also being taught this quarter.
Prerequisites:
LING 200 or 400 (Introduction to Linguistics) or equivalent
(e.g., ENGL 370), LING 4/532 (Sociolinguistics I), or instructor's permission.
Recommended prerequisites: LING 4/534 (Socio II), LING 453
(Experimental Phonetics).
Learning
goals:
By the end of the quarter, students will be able to:
1. Define and discuss key terms in sociolinguistic
investigations of language change, including: changes in progress, panel
studies, trend studies, apparent time hypothesis, the 3 Labovian principles of
chain shifts, the Great Vowel Shift
2. Name the historic word classes used by sociolinguists and the
recognize the importance of using word classes when representing diachronic
variation (vs. synchronic representations accomplished using phonetic
transcription)
3. Use LabovÕs Plotnik software for representing phonetic data
by word class groupings for a small sampling of data investigating a change in
progress
Required
work:
1.)
25%-- Laboratory assignment. Investigation of
studentÕs own (non)participation in a merger in North American English. Non-native-English speaking students
will work with data from a classmate.
2.) 35%-- Reading
responses. Show comprehension of and respond critically to course readings.
These will generally be turned in every week.
3.) 40%-- Final
paper. There are two options
for this portion of the course grade: Due at the beginning of the final examination period for this course: 10:30am,
Monday, Jun. 8, 2009
a.
Option I: A final
term paper examining the progress to date of a well-described change in
progress (10-15 pages, single-spaced). Paper must consider the history of the change, as well as
alternative accounts of the ordering and causality of change.
b.
Option
II: Students will
be responsible for plotting some data (original or archival) from American
English that relate to a change in progress, using Plotnik, and writing up the
results. (10-15 pages, single-spaced).
Required
Readings:
1.)
(required purchase) Labov, William (1994) Principles
of Linguistic Change: volume 1,
internal factors. Oxford:
Blackwell.
2.)
Readings on electronic reserve (does not include optional readings)
3.) (accessed in sociolinguistics laboratory) Labov, William,
Ash, Sherri, and Boberg, Charles (2006). The
Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. The Northern
Cities, ch. 14 and The southern shift, ch. 18.
COURSE POLICIES
Disability accommodation: It is my goal to insure that our learning environment is
accessible to everyone. If you have a learning or other disability that
requires accommodation, please contact me or Disabled Student Services in order to make suitable
arrangements (448 Schmitz, 543-8924 (V), 543-8925 (TTY), uwdss@u.washington.edu.
Academic integrity: Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of
academic ethics, honesty and integrity. Academic misconduct includes (but is
not limited to) plagiarism, harassment, cheating, or representing another
personÕs work as your own and will not be tolerated. It is your responsibility
to read and understand the UniversityÕs expectations in this regard (which you
can find online at http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html). Any student found to be in
violation of proper academic conduct will be dealt with in the strictest manner
in accordance with University policy.
Email: I
will attempt to respond to email inquiries within 24 hours (excepting weekends
and holidays).
Student responsibilities:
1. If you must miss a lecture or a
section it is your responsibility to
obtain the information you missed.
2. The tests and assignment dates are
not negotiable excepting for a university-sanctioned absence. Please see the University Handbook on
excused absences.
Laptop computers:
1. Laptop computers may be
used in class only for note-taking.
2. A student who is doing non-class related activities on his
or her computer is not only hurting his or her own education, but possibly the
educational experience of many others in the class: research has shown that a
game or a picture on a laptop distracts not only the student using the computer
but also those students nearby (Yamamoto 2007, Fried 2008). Therefore the use of laptops for
non-class activity (e.g. email, games, web-surfing) is prohibited. Students using their laptop for
non-class activity will be asked to turn off their laptop.
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
1. The most successful students in
this course:
á Attend every class meeting
á Prepare readings and questions in
advance of lectures
á Expand on their learning by
participating in class discussions
á Prepare writing assignments
thoughtfully and include connections made to prior knowledge, connections to
other texts, other content areas, etc.
á Form study groups to enhance their
learning
SYLLABUS
note: required
readings are listed using the following abbreviation conventions: readings from
the main text begin with an ÒLÓ followed by chapter no. and page(s), e.g., [L1p4-5]
represents ch 1, pages 4-5. Single-authored works are listed by last initial
and chapter, e.g., [McM2] or full last name [Martinet]. Coauthored works are
referenced by initials, e.g., [LKM] for Labov, Karen and Miller.
Topics
and readings:
Week 1 Tu March 31
¯ Characterization
of sound changes: completed vs. in progress
¯ The
importance of changes in progress to
sociolinguistic theory
¯ Internal
factors vs. external factors: grounds for divorce? [L1p2-3]
¯ LabovÕs
conceptualization of ÒtheoryÓ [L1p4-5]
¯ How does
this research program connect to historical linguistics? The actuation and transmission problems in historical linguistics [McM1]
assignment: read [Lpx-xii]
ÒNotational ConventionsÓ, [WLH]
In
your notes, for discussion next class: define the Òembedding problem and the
evaluation problem.Ó In particular, what are the two parts of the Òembedding
problemÓ? [WLH]
Th April 2
¯ Empirical foundations of a theory of change in progress [WLH]
¯ Historic
word classes and LabovÕs symbol correspondences
¯ Identify
major patterns in present-day English with respect to change in progress in
these classes
¯ reading
response assigned
assignment:
read [L1], reading response
Week 2 Tu April 7
¯ Use of the present to explain the past [L1]
¯ Ch 1 Reading
response due
¯ Ch 2,3 Reading
response assigned
assignment:
read [L2,3], reading response
Th April 9
¯ Observations in Apparent Time [L2,3]
¯ Types of
real-time study
¯ The Apparent
Time hypothesis
¯ Ch 2,3
reading response due
assignment:
read [L4], [Martinet]
Week 3 Tu April 14
¯ Observations in Real and Apparent Time, cont. [L4]
¯ Age-stratification
vs. age-grading
¯ Functional
explanations of sound change [Martinet]
¯ Ch 5
Reading response assigned
assignment:
read [L5], reading response
Th April 16
¯ General principles: chain shifting [L5]
¯ minimal
and extended chain shifts; push and drag chains
¯ Ch 5
Reading response due
assignment:
read [L6,7]
Week 4 Tu April 21
¯ General principles: chain shifting II [L6,7]
¯ The Great
Vowel Shift
¯ Gordon Reading
response assigned
assignment:
read [Gordon], [ANAE14], Gordon reading response
Th April 23
¯ Chain Shifts: The Northern Cities Shift [ANAE14]
¯ Directionality
and causality of the NCS in question [Gordon]
¯ Gordon
reading response due
assignment:
read [ANAE18]
Week 5 Tu April 28
¯ The Southern Shift [ANAE18]
¯ No
reading response assigned
assignment:
read [M&H]
Th April 30
¯ The Meat/Mate Merger
[M&H]
¯ The
diachronic advancement of dialect differentiation
assignment:
read [L9]
Week 6 Tu May 5
¯ Phonemic Splits, Chain Shifts across Subsystems [L9]
¯ Peripherality
and phonetic evidence for subsystems in perception
¯ Ch 10,11 reading
response assigned
assignment:
read [L10, 11], reading response
Th May 7
¯ Some Impossible Unmergings and General Properties of Mergers and Splits [L10,11]
¯ Ch 10,11
reading response due
assignment:
read [L12], review Plotnik manual
Week 7 Tu May 12 ****MEET IN THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS LABORATORY****
¯ Studying the suspension of phonemic contrast [L12]
¯ Plotnik
tutorial
¯ Studying
the rhotic word classes
¯ Laboratory
assignment given out and explained
assignment:
read [L13], begin Laboratory assignment
Th May 14
¯ Explanation of Unmergings [L13]
assignment:
read [LKM], [L14]. Note: much of [L14] is redundant with LKM, which is the
original research article from which this chapter was written. Continue working
on laboratory assignment.
Week 8 Tu May 19
¯ Near-mergers and the suspension of phonemic contrast
[LKM, L14]
¯ Testing
near mergers: the commutation and Coach tests
assignment:
read [McM2], continue working on Laboratory assignment
Th May 21
¯ Structuralist, Neogrammarian and Generative views on
sound change [McM2]
¯ The
Regularity Hypothesis
¯ Laboratory
assignment due
assignment:
read [McM3]
Week 9 Tu May 26
¯ Structuralist, Neogrammarian and Generative views on
sound change [McM3]
¯ Lexical phonology and sound change
¯ Term
paper abstracts discussed
assignment: read
[L15,L16p451-454], prepare term paper abstracts
Th May 28
¯ Regularity and the Neogrammarian
Controversy [L15, 16p451-454]
¯ Lexical
diffusion in the speech community
¯ Term
paper abstracts due
assignment: read [L17]
Week 10 Tu June 2
¯ Regular Sound Change and Regional Dialect Variation [L17]
¯ The
lexical diffusionist account of the GVS
assignment: read [L18]
Th June 4
¯ Proposed Resolution to the Regularity question [L18]
¯ Complete
course evaluations
Required
readings (not including those in the required Labov text):
Unless
otherwise noted, readings are to be found on electronic reserve. Each reading
is preceded by the abbreviation used to represent it in the syllabus, above.
à not in UW library system, but owned by Sociolinguistics
Laboratory, Padelford B5GH
à [ANAE] Labov, William, Ash,
Sherri, and Boberg, Charles (2006). The
Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. The Northern
Cities, ch. 14 and The southern shift, ch. 18.
[Gordon]
Gordon, Matthew (2005) ÒNew York,
Philadelphia, and other northern cities.Ó In, Handbook of Varieties of English: The Americas and Caribbean, Vol. 1,
Phonology (E. Schneider, ed.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp 282-299.
[LKM] Labov,
William, Karen, Mark, and Miller, Corey (1991) ÒNear-mergers and the suspension
of phonemic contrastÓ, Language Variation
and Change (3)1, pp33-74.
[Martinet]
Martinet, AndrŽ (1952)
Function, structure and sound change. Word 8:1-32.
[McM] McMahon,
April (1999) Understanding Language
Change. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP.
[M&H]
Milroy, James, and John Harris (1980) When is a merger not a
merger? The MEAT/MATE problem in a
present-day English vernacular. English World-Wide, 1:199-210.
[WLH] Weinreich, U., Labov, W., and Herzog, M. (1968)
Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Directions for historical linguistics; a symposium (W. P. Lehmann
and Yakov Malkiel, eds.). Austin, University of Texas
Press. pp. 95-188.
Plotnik
The Plotnik manual is bundled with downloaded
software. You may download the
software yourself, or access it from the sociolinguistics laboratory computers.
Description of software http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Plotnik.html
Further Reading:
Evans, Betsy, Ito, Rika, Jones, Jamilla &
Preston, Dennis R. (2000). ÒChange on Top of Change: Social and Regional
Accommodation to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.Ó De Toekomst van de Variatielinguistiek (a special issue of Taan en
Tongval to honor Dr. Jo Daan on her ninetieth birthday), ed. by H. Bennis, H.
Ryckeboer, and Jan Stroop, pp61-86.
Gordon, Matthew J. (2001) Small-Town Values and Big-City Vowels: a study of the Northern Cities
Shift in Michigan. Durham, NC:
Duke U Press.
Labov, William, Malcah Yeager and Richard Steiner (1972) A Quantitative Study of Sound Change in
Progress. Philadelphia: U.S.
Regional Survey.
Ohala, J. J.
(1980) The Listener as a source of sound change. Working Papers of the
Chicago Linguistic Society.
Stockwell, Robert P. (1972) Problems in the interpretation
of the Great Vowel Shift. In Studies in Linguistics in Honor of George L.
Trager, M. E. Smith (ed.), The
Hague: Mouton, 344-62.
Toon, Thomas E. (1978) Lexical Diffusion in Old English. In Papers from the Parasession on the Lexicon, Chicago:
Chicago Linguistic Society, 357-64.
----- (1983) The Politics of Early Old English Sound
Change. New York: Academic Press.
Trudgill, Peter and Tzvaras, G. A. (1975) Why
Albanian-Greeks are not Albanians:
Language shift in Attica and Biotia. In Language,
Ethnicity, and Intergroup Relations (H. Giles, ed.) European Monographs in
Social Psychology 13, New York: Academic.
Wang, William S.-Y. (1979) Language Change: A lexical
perspective. Annual Review of
Anthropology, 8:353-71.
Rubric for Grading Reading
Responses
|
Exceeds 45-50 points |
In addition to all ÒMeetsÓ criteria, the response also
contains
|
|
Meets 40-44.5 points |
|
|
Approaches 35-39.5 points |
|
|
Not yet 0-34.5 points |
|