661.02 Introduction to Quantitative Sociolinguistics U G 5
Prereq: 661.01
Exploration of language in its social context through the methods of quantitative analysis of linguistic variation, including the Labovian and implicational models.
661 is a graduate level introduction to the central concerns of quantitative sociolinguistics and the frameworks and methods of analysis that sociolinguists working in this area have developed. The course will focus on some of the major findings which this type of sociolinguistic research has yielded about the nature of linguistic variation and its relation to language structure. The frameworks of analysis to be considered include the Labovian "quantitative" model as well as the social networks approach and the implicational model. There will also be a brief survey of work in the areas that Hymes refers to as "the social as well as the linguistic" (the sociology of language) and "socially
constituted linguistics" (particularly the ethnography of speaking).
Requirements will include a couple of mini-papers, a variation project, in-class discussion of assigned readings and either a research paper or a final examination.
Offered 2007-2008:
Offered 2008-2009 (projected):
Last modified 2001-04-02
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