 |
        |
Course
Offerings in Sociolinguistics at the Ohio State University
Undergraduate
Courses |
LING
303: Language, Race, and Ethnicity
|
| This
course examines the relationship between language and social constructs such as
race and ethnicity, with particular emphasis on race relations in the United States.
It is concerned with the ways in which language serves as a basis for inter-ethnic
conflict, discrimination and lack of social opportunity. The main focus of the
course will be the varieties of English used by members of minority ethnic and
racial groups in the United States, and the general relationship between their
languages and their place in American society. (GEC 6. Diversity Experiences -
A. Social Diversity in the United States)
|
LING
367: Language and Gender
|
| How
culturally enshired ideas about gender affect language and the use of language
and how linguistic conventions for the expression of gender differences reinforce
these ideas. |
The
course deals with structure and usage patterns in language as exhibited by men
and women. This inquiry focuses on the following question: How do the members
of each sex use language differently? How does language treat the sexes differently?
How do such differences affect our perceptions, attitudes and behavior in everyday
life? The learning of sex-typed languages by children and cross-cultural aspects
of these questions are considered. (GEC 1. Writing and Related Skills - B. Second
Course) [Prereq: ENGL 110 or 111]
|
LING
372: Language and Social Identity in the USA
|
| Relationships
between language and social diversity in the general American speech community;
discussion of how individuals and social groups distinguish themselves on the
basis of language. |
This
course examines the relationships between language and social diversity in the
general American speech community. Its aim is to shed light on how individuals
and social groups distinguish themselves on the basis of their choice of language,
and their sharing (or not) of common norms of social evaluation and interpretation.
In particular, it will investigate the relationship between language and such
social parameters as social status, ethnicity, race, gender, etc. Finally, it
will consider the role of language differences in the creation of social stereotypes,
and their implications for social advantage or disadvantage. (GEC 4. Social Sciences
- A. Individuals and Groups; GEC 6. Diversity Experiences - A. Social Diversity
in the United States) [Prereq: ENGL 110 or 111]
|
LING
375: Language Across Cultures
|
| Investigation
of relationships between language and culture in different societies with a view
to shedding light on cross-cultural similarities and differences. |
The
course will introduce students to methodologies developed by sociolinguists and
other researchers to examine variation in linguistic choices and their relationships
to such aspects of culture as social identity and role, belief and value systems,
etc. Among the questions examined are the ways in which language reflects social
organization and its role in marking social categories. The course will also investigate
the ways language may reflect how speakers perceive the world and categorize experience.
Finally, it will examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in all of
these areas, and their contribution to better cross-cultural understanding. (GEC
4. Social Sciences - A. Individuals and Groups; GEC 6. Diversity Experiences -
B. International Issues) [Prereq: ENGL 110 or 111]
|
LING
505: Language and the Black Experience
|
The
main focus of this course will be the varieties of English used by African-Americans
in the United States, and the general relationship between language and socio-cultural
organization in the African-American community. This course is designed to introduce
students to the structure, history, and use of the distinctive varieties of English
used by and among many African Americans in the u.s. We will examine some of the
linguistic features that distinguish African-American English (aae) from other
varieties of American English. We will consider theories regarding the history
and emergence of aae. We will look at the representation of aae in literature,
and its role in the genres and rules of speaking in the African-American speech
community. And we will consider ideologies regarding the use of aae, especially
as they relate to social opportunity and disadvantage in education and other areas
of social life.
|
Graduate
Courses
|
LING
661.01: Intro to Sociolinguistics
|
This
is a graduate-level introduction to the study of language in its social context.
The course will survey various approaches to this area of investigation, including
the sociology of language, the ethnography of speaking, discourse analysis and
quantitative sociolinguistics. We will consider the basic concepts and terminology
used in all of these approaches and attempt to distinguish both the similarities
and differences in their underlying assumptions, objectives, and methods of analysis.
|
LING
605: African-American Vernacular English
|
The
main focus of this course is the varieties of English used by African-Americans
in the United States, and the general relationship between language and socio-cultural
organization in the African-American community. The course will also examine other
varieties of Black English used in other New World communities such as the Caribbean,
as well as in other areas of the Black Diaspora, with a view to exploring the
similarities and relationships among these different types of English.
|
LING
611.01: Intro to Historical Linguistics
|
The
purpose of the course is to introduce the student to the general principles involved
in language change, the processes which trigger change in language and bring on
the spread of change, and the methods linguists use to determine, describe, and
account for language change. The emphasis is on changes in sound systems (hence
the phonology prerequisite) because much of the early important work in historical
linguistics focused on sound change; however, changes in all components of the
linguistic system are documented and discussed. In addition, the importance of
language change for theoretical concerns in linguistics is given some attention.
|
LING
661.02: Intro to Quantitative Sociolinguistics
|
This
is a graduate-level introduction to the study of language in its social context.
The course will focus primarily on quantitative sociolinguistics, and the frameworks
and methods of analysis that sociolinguists working in this area have developed.
We will discuss some of the major findings of sociolinguistic research on the
nature of linguistic variation and its relation to language structure. The frameworks
of analysis to be considered include the Labovian model and related approaches,
as well as the implicational model.
|
LING
685: Contact Linguistics
|
This
is a graduate-level introduction to the study of language contact and its outcomes,
as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes.
We will examine a wide range of language contact phenomena from both general linguistic
and sociolinguistic perspectives, and survey current approaches to all of the
major types of contact-induced change. We will consider both the linguistic and
social aspects of the contact situation and how they affect the outcomes, with
special attention to the general processes and principles that are at work in
all cases of language contact.
|
LING
795Q: Statistical Methods
|
Increasingly,
linguists handle quantitative data in their research. Phoneticians, sociolinguistics,
psycholinguists and computational linguists deal in numbers and have for decades.
Now also, phonologists, syntacticians and historical linguists are also finding
linguistic research to involve quantitative methods. For example, Keller (2003)
measures sentence acceptibility using a psychophysical technique called magnitute
estimation. Also, Boersma & Hayes (2001) employ probablistic reasoning in
a constraint reranking algorithm for optimality theory. Consequently, mastery
of quantitative methods is increasingly becoming a vital component of linguistic
training. In this course, practical aspects of handling quantitative linguistic
data will be as important a focus as the strategies and methods of quantitative
analysis. We will be concerned with how to use a particular statistical package
(R) to discover patterns in quantitative data and to test linguistic hypotheses.
This theme is very practical and assumes that it is appropriate and useful to
look at quantitative measures of language structure and usage.
|
ANTH
810: Ethnographic Methods
|
Description
Coming Soon
|
EDU
T/L 803: Language in Society
|
| This
course explores issues related to the social dimensions of language and language
learning, focusing on the societal, cultural, political, psychological, and interactional
contexts of language use. Issues around language use and learning are closely
intertwined with people's perceptions of and attitudes toward particular languages
and dialects, various language standards, and particular groups of language users.
With increasing globalization, U.S. schools have become more linguistically and
culturally diverse, so that many teachers confront these issues on a daily basis.
This course will provide research-based understandings about language in its sociocultural
context at both the macro (societal) and micro (interactional) levels, helping
teachers to better understand diverse ways of language use and learning that students
from different cultural backgrounds experience, and it will facilitate teaching
from a sociocultural perspective. |
Course
content covers: |
-
the relationship between language and ethnicity
-
the variety of English and Englishes in the U.S. as well as worldwide
- the
role of culture in language learning
- the
consequences for children and for teachers of differences between language practices
at home and at school
- the
influence of gender in language learning and use
- multiplicity
in the use and development of languages and literacies in a society.
|
| Through
a wide range of readings in print, audio/visual and digital formats on different
aspects of the language--society relationship, students in the course can broaden
and deepen their understandings of language learning and teaching as a social
practice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ENGL
872: Discourse Analysis
|
For
students interested in examining discourse as part of a social science or humanities
research project, this course will give you the tools to investigate how language
structure - not just content - shapes perceptions, values, social interaction,
and politics.The course provides an overview of the major approaches to analyzing
spoken and written discourse used in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology,
including interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, ethnography of
communication, pragmatics, and critical discourse analysis. We will explore how
the contexts of various spheres of social interaction both construct and are constructed
by discourse which occurs in or in relation to them. The approach that we will
take to analyzing texts is a micro-level one, focusing on the details of linguistic
structure and how those details connect to more macro spheres of social engagement.
Students will collect examples of spoken and written texts, and analyze them in
short paper assignments.
|
SPAN
738: Discourse Pragmatics
|
Description
Coming Soon
|
Advanced
Courses
|
LING
861: Seminar in Sociolinguistics-Field Methods
|
Description
Coming Soon
|
LING
861: Seminar in Sociolinguistics-Theory and Methods
|
| This
seminar continues the examination of quantitative approaches to the study of linguistic
variation which was begun in L661.02. It explores in greater depth the methodological
and theoretical issues raised by quantitative analysis of linguistic variability
and its sociocultural correlates. The seminar will have two complementary goals,
one concerned with linguistic issues, the other with sociocultural ones. |
The
first of these will address the ways in which the findings of quantitative sociolinguistic
analysis might be relevant to the concerns of both synchronic and diachronic linguistic
description. Some of the issues to be investigated include the attempt to incorporate
variability into models of phonology and syntax, the problems involved in identifying
the semantic basis of linguistic variables at levels above phonology, and the
difficulties posed for quantitative analysis by situations involving dialect contact,
or co-existent systems of the type found in creole situations and African American
English.The long standing issue of the relationship between synchronic variation
and diachronic processes will also be addressed, especially in relation to the
issue of “decreolization” in Caribbean and similar situations such
as African American English. |
The
second broad goal of the seminar will be to examine linguistic variability as
a form of social practice intimately related to social identities, social values
and ideologies, and other aspects of sociocultural organization. The study of
the sociocultural aspects of language variability has become more sophisticated
of late, employing methods from ethnography, social psychology and sociology to
uncover the social meanings attached to linguistic behavior. We will examine the
contributions that each of these disciplines can make to our understanding of
what drives social (inter)action through language. |
Among
the topics we will discuss are the following: |
-
The use of ethnography to probe the “social landscape” of variati
on, as in Penelope Eckert’s work.
- The
contribution of communication accommodation theory to our understanding of the
ideologies that condition language choice.
- The
ways in which social network theory can illuminate the role of language in (re-)
creating social identities.
- The
broader contribution of sociological theory in providing a sense of the macro-level
social structures within which social practice takes place.
|
| As
is usual in seminars, students will lead discussion of key publications on the
various topics described above. Students will also have the opportunity to begin
research on some aspect of language variation, or further develop the research
projects they began in previous classes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
LING
861: Seminar in Sociolinguisitics-Contact Linguistics
|
| The
goal of this seminar is to explore in some detail the methodological frameworks
and theoretical issues that relate to the origins and development of various outcomes
of language contact. The seminar is a follow-up to L685, 'Languages in Contact',
and presupposes coverage of that course syllabus or some equivalent (for example
a background in Historical Linguistics). The class will be conducted seminar-style,
with students leading discussion of key publications on various instances of contact-induced
change and mixture. The coverage will include cases of lexical and structural
borrowing, convergence, code-switching, the creation of bilingual mixed languages,
tutored and untutored second language acquisition, and pidgin and creole formation. |
One
of the central concerns of the seminar will be to discover what all of these outcomes
have in common, particularly with respect to the processes of change or restructuring
involved, and the principles that guide them. We will examine various frameworks
that have been proposed for the analysis and classification of contact-induced
changes, including van Coetsem's theory of transfer types in borrowing and imposition,
Thomason & Kaufman's distinction between 'borrowing' and 'inteference under
shift', as well as theories of "transfer" in second language acquisition
and creole formation. Van Coetsem in particular offers a unified framework within
which outcomes of contact can be classified and distinguished, and it will form
the basis of our approach. |
Emphasis
will be placed on the empirical evidence required for testing various hypotheses,
and students will be expected to explore specific case studies and data in some
detail. Though the seminar will follow a central core of topics and issues, there
will be a great deal of flexibility in the coverage of topics, so as to satisfy
the varied interests of students. Students who are interested in any aspect of
language contact are invited to attend.
|
Related
Courses in Historical Linguistics
|
LING
609: Morphological Theory
|
The
grammatical and phonological analysis of words, and their significance in linguistic
structure. An introduction to the grammatical and phonological analysis of words,
and to the analytical techniques developed by various schools of linguistics,
with exercises from a variety of languages based on published descriptions of
languages representative of various morphological types. Survey of theories of
morphological structure and typology, including recent studies in generative grammar.
Examination of relations between morphology and other levels of structure in language.
|
LING
801: Historical Phonology
|
| An
introduction to the methods, conventions, and literature of comparative-historical
linguistics. This course is designed to introduce students to historical linguistics
on an advanced level, concentrating on problems and methods in historical phonology.
The question of causation of phonological change is considered carefully, both
in relationship to the methodology employed in historical phonological analysis,
and in relationship to the models of synchronic phonologies in the community (sociophonetics)
and in the individual (psycholinguistics of the mental lexicon) that have been
assumed in developing different methodologies. |
The
first part of the course will be a brief review of the comparative method and
its theoretical foundations in the models of phonological grammars and of speech
communities proposed by the Neogrammarians. Coursework in this part consists of
two short homework exercises, using material drawn from Indo-European, although
parallel phenomena in other reasonably well-studied language families will be
emphasized in discussing the exercises in relationship to the readings to the
concurrent readings. Readings in these first weeks will be the relevant review
articles on the comparative method in Joseph & Janda's (2003) Handbook of
Historical Linguistics. |
The
second (and larger) part of the course will be a more in-depth exploration of
relevant methodological and theoretical issues pertaining to demonstrations of
the regularity of sound change and/or to the explanation of (apparent) counter-examples.
Two sets of questions will be addressed in this part. First, what is the best
way to understand the relationship between synchronic variation and sound change?
In particular, how can quantitative sociolinguistic findings from modern speech
communities apply to our understanding of the origin and the spread of sound change
completed in the more or less distant past? Conversely, how can the model of this
relationship proposed by Weinreich et al. (1968) and developed further in the
extensive body of literature summarized in Labov (1994) inform phonological theory?
Second, is "lexical diffusion" a distinct mechanism or merely a subtype
of analogy or dialect borrowing? In particular, how does the choice of theory
about the relationship of phonological grammar to mental lexicon constrain our
understanding of the spread of sound change through the vocabulary of an individual
speaker (in contrast to the spread of a sound change across the aggregate of speakers
that constitute the speech community at any time during the course of a particular
sound change in progress)? What are the constraints imposed by theory-internal
assumptions about the phonological grammars of individual speakers in the different
answers to this question proposed by Kiparsky (1994), Guy & Boyd (1990), Anttila
(1997), Bybee (2000), and Pierrehumbert (2002). |
Coursework
in this part consists of individual term projects: each student chooses a more
specific question of personal interest, develops an annotated bibliography of
relevant readings, and designs a corpus study, a field project, or an experiment
that could be done to explore the question either in the course of the quarter
or independently after the course is over, as appropriate for the size of the
data-gathering phase of the project. Readings in this part will include relevant
articles from the literature that the entire class reads together, as well as
the readings from the project bibliographies, which each student does alone.
|
LING
802: Historical Morphology
|
| Advanced
work in the comparison and reconstruction of morphological and syntactic systems,
primarily Indo-European; detailed examination of some of the results of past and
current scholarship. This course concentrates primarily on the methods and techniques
employed in the reconstruction of morphological systems. Special attention is
given to the ways in which these systems have changed and the general principles
of change which can be extracted from developments in Indo-European morphology. |
As
in 801, the main focus is Indo-European, but data from other families is also
considered. 801 is the formal prerequisite for this course, but it can be taken
independently of 801. Together with 801, this course provides the student with
a background in I-E linguistics and a basis from which to carry out historical
work in any language family. Topics to be covered include: the role of analogy
in language change; interactions among changes in phonological, morphological,
and syntactic components of a grammar; morphological changes in current theories
of morphology; simplification and complication of morphological systems; speculations
on the origin of the PIE nominal and verbal systems; Benveniste's theory of the
IE root; etc.
|
Related
Courses in Socio-Phonetics
|
LING
600.01 Phonetics I
|
| Principles
of phonetics, with particular focus on the nature of phonetic representation and
the acoustic theory of speech production; practice in the transcription and acoustic
analysis of sounds in various languages of the world. Ling 600.01 is a graduate-level
introduction to phonetics. It is an overview of phonetic representations and theories,
starting from the basics of the acoustic theory of speech production and extending
through recent models of speech perception capacities that are tuned to a specific
language. |
A
major component of the coursework is a set of weekly homework assignments, which
use pre-recorded data that will be provided on the course web page, supplemented
by a related set of in-class lab assignments, which use data that the student
will provide. This component is intended to fulfill the main function of the course,
which is to provide the background for further work in phonetics and laboratory
phonology. A second component is a small field project, with incremental field
project reports geared to the topics covered in the class. Most of the later lab
sessions use data recorded in collaboration with the field project language consultant,
so that this component of the coursework relates the phonetic theories and representations
reviewed in class to the classical phonological model of distinctive features
and allophonic variation embodied in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Thus,
this component covers some of the background for courses in field methods and
phonological theory by providing the opportunity to exercise transcription skills
in conjunction with other methods of observation in working with a language consultant.
However, this coverage assumes a basic familiarity with the IPA model and its
relationship to subsequent phonological theory. A student who wants a more thorough
introduction to the IPA should enroll instead in Speech & Hearing 320 or Linguistics
500.
|
LING
600.02 Phonetics II
|
Introduction
to laboratory methods and quantitative models of speech for linguistics. This
course provides an intermediate-level course between the introductory course in
phonetics (Ling. 600.01) and the seminar in advanced phonetics (Ling. 825). It
is also an introduction to methods of experimental research and computational
modeling of speech perception and production as tools in phonological analysis.
|
There
will be two two-hour sessions each week. The major coursework will consist of
fortnightly problem sets involving the gathering and/or analysis of real speech
data and corpora, as well as readings in the published literature exemplifying
the laboratory phonology approach.
|
LING
825.1 Seminar in Phonetics: Talker Variability
|
This
seminar provides an overview of research and readings related to the perception
and production of both intra-talker sources of phonetic variability (speaking
style, emotional state) and inter-talker sources of phonetic variability (voice
quality, gender, regional and ethnic dialect). Course requirements will include
leading in-class discussions of selected papers and a final research project.
[Prereq: Linguistics 600.01]
|
LING
801: Historical Phonology
|
| An
introduction to the methods, conventions, and literature of comparative-historical
linguistics. This course is designed to introduce students to historical linguistics
on an advanced level, concentrating on problems and methods in historical phonology.
The question of causation of phonological change is considered carefully, both
in relationship to the methodology employed in historical phonological analysis,
and in relationship to the models of synchronic phonologies in the community (sociophonetics)
and in the individual (psycholinguistics of the mental lexicon) that have been
assumed in developing different methodologies. |
The
first part of the course will be a brief review of the comparative method and
its theoretical foundations in the models of phonological grammars and of speech
communities proposed by the Neogrammarians. Coursework in this part consists of
two short homework exercises, using material drawn from Indo-European, although
parallel phenomena in other reasonably well-studied language families will be
emphasized in discussing the exercises in relationship to the readings to the
concurrent readings. Readings in these first weeks will be the relevant review
articles on the comparative method in Joseph & Janda's (2003) Handbook of
Historical Linguistics. |
The
second (and larger) part of the course will be a more in-depth exploration of
relevant methodological and theoretical issues pertaining to demonstrations of
the regularity of sound change and/or to the explanation of (apparent) counter-examples.
Two sets of questions will be addressed in this part. First, what is the best
way to understand the relationship between synchronic variation and sound change?
In particular, how can quantitative sociolinguistic findings from modern speech
communities apply to our understanding of the origin and the spread of sound change
completed in the more or less distant past? Conversely, how can the model of this
relationship proposed by Weinreich et al. (1968) and developed further in the
extensive body of literature summarized in Labov (1994) inform phonological theory?
Second, is "lexical diffusion" a distinct mechanism or merely a subtype
of analogy or dialect borrowing? In particular, how does the choice of theory
about the relationship of phonological grammar to mental lexicon constrain our
understanding of the spread of sound change through the vocabulary of an individual
speaker (in contrast to the spread of a sound change across the aggregate of speakers
that constitute the speech community at any time during the course of a particular
sound change in progress)? What are the constraints imposed by theory-internal
assumptions about the phonological grammars of individual speakers in the different
answers to this question proposed by Kiparsky (1994), Guy & Boyd (1990), Anttila
(1997), Bybee (2000), and Pierrehumbert (2002). |
Coursework
in this part consists of individual term projects: each student chooses a more
specific question of personal interest, develops an annotated bibliography of
relevant readings, and designs a corpus study, a field project, or an experiment
that could be done to explore the question either in the course of the quarter
or independently after the course is over, as appropriate for the size of the
data-gathering phase of the project. Readings in this part will include relevant
articles from the literature that the entire class reads together, as well as
the readings from the project bibliographies, which each student does alone.
|
