ANTH
231 - Sociolinguistics
Fall 2012
Class time: Mon – Fri 2:30 – 3:45
Denice Szafran Classroom: Welles 26
Sturges 13F Office hours: TTh 2-3, W 1-2
245-5174 email: szafran@geneseo.edu
NOTE: The course content is subject to change as necessary throughout the semester. All students are responsible for attending class for information in this regard. Check myCourses for updates and announcements, lecture outlines, and information on homework, papers, and exams. It is important to consult the myCourses page at a minimum of once a week for changes and important information.
DESCRIPTION
This course examines the mutually inclusive relationship between language and society. With regard to the linguistic dimensions of society, it will explore micro-sociolinguistics and investigate how the way people talk correlates with social variables, such as class, gender, ethnicity, and education, etc. With regard to the social dimensions of language, it will explore macro-sociolinguistics and investigate what societies do with their languages, as in linguistic engineering and language attitudes. In the process, certain issues will be examined, where linguistic problems have become societal problems, as in educational failures, bilingualism, and ethnic conflicts arising from rival linguistic-cultural identities.
As a Social Science Core course, Anth 231 is designed to deepen your understanding and awareness of speakers as social beings, and to introduce to you the different approaches and methods used by linguists in the investigation of the social aspects of speech and communication.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
· Students will demonstrate knowledge about the major issues of micro-sociolinguistics and macro-sociolinguistics by taking a midterm and a final examination;
· Students will demonstrate an appreciation of sociolinguistic theories and paradigms through developing a term paper which synthesizes and critiques sociolinguistic researches on a particular aspect or topic of language use in society;
· Students will show more respect for multilingualism by confronting linguistic biases in classroom discussions;
· Students will demonstrate an ability to think critically and address the controversies of certain social dialects in both classroom discussions and term papers.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Blum, Susan D.
2013 Making Sense of Language. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Basso, Keith H.
ANY Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press.
Additional required readings are loaded onto myCourses and the due dates are indicated on the syllabus. Please feel free to search online and in local stores for used copies of the texts or share books.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Readings:
Readings are from the textbook, and from additional materials uploaded to myCourses. Please make sure you have read them by the day they are listed on the syllabus, as we will discuss them in class on that day.
Quizzes:
There will be a total of ten quizzes administered on myCourses on the material we’ve read and/or discussed in class, roughly one for every full week of class.
Exams:
There will be two exams for the class, a midterm and a final. The midterm will consist of multiple choice, true/false, short answer and an essay.
The final exam will be take-home project that I will hand out on November 19th. We will meet on the day scheduled for your final, Wednesday, December 12th at 3:30 pm, to hand them in and discuss what you have researched. You MUST show up on final exam day in order to receive credit for the exam!
Paper:
You are to produce a descriptive and analytic report on the required reading, Wisdom Sits in Places. The length of the paper must be five to seven typed double-spaced pages (no greater than a Courier Font at 12 point), not including the references cited section. You should include references to the material covered in class as it applies to Wisdom. Please make sure you cite where you quote or paraphrase or use ideas from your references. Papers without citations referenced in the body of the text will be graded lower. All papers must have an additional page listing the references cited in the text. I loaded the AAA Style Guide onto myCourses, and I expect that you will use this style for your citations in the paper.
COURSE GRADING:
Midterm Exam: 20 %
Discussions 10 %
Final Project: 30 %
Paper: 30 %
Quizzes 10 %
Grading scale:
93 -100 A
90 – 92.9 A-
87 – 89.9 B+
83 – 86.9 B
80 – 82.9 B-
77
– 79.9 C+
73 – 76.9 C
70 – 72.9 C-
67 – 69.9 D+
63 – 66.9 D
< 62.9 F
CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS:
· Deadlines: No late work will be accepted. I understand that there may be situations where you just cannot get work to me on time, or that you may miss an exam – illness, accidents, deaths in the family – but “my dog ate my homework” is old, as are the variations of it. If you have a very good reason why your work was/will be late (with documentation), please notify me as soon as possible, and we can work something out.
· Attendance: Show up for class.
· Plagiarism: Presenting another person's work as your own (including downloading materials from the Internet, multiple submissions of the same work, unauthorized collaboration, falsification and/or any other violation of academic integrity) is unacceptable and will result in a 0 grade on the assignment and/or a failing grade in the course.
· Students with disabilities or special needs should contact the Office of Disability Services. Based on recommendations from that office, students may receive needed assistance, such as additional time or a quiet space to take exams, a reader for exams, and so on.
· Teaching Philosophy: I teach my classes with the broadest possible examples and try to tie them in to your everyday life and ordinary experiences. I believe that the best educational experiences occur in an open and participatory environment. There will be no "trick questions" on the exams or assignments, and I will make every effort to ensure that you understand exactly what is expected of you.
· Cell phones: If you are facing an emergency situation which necessitates that you keep your phone on, please notify me before the class begins and be as discrete as you can while in class. Otherwise, I expect that your phone will either be off, or set to vibrate, unless we are using smart phones for research during class. Of course, text messaging during class is rude and out of the question.
· Laptop use in the classroom creates new and exciting possibilities for teachers and students when used appropriately. Negative participation (surfing, gaming, chatting, emailing) in class is prohibited. Any student found to violate this policy will be asked to discontinue use of the laptop (or PDA, iPhone, etc) for the remainder of the class period. A second occurrence will result in the removal of the student’s laptop privileges for the remainder of the semester and will reduce your grade because you are a distraction to others sitting nearby, and to me.
· Discussion guidelines: Everyone is expected to comport themselves in a manner that does not convey to others in this classroom any disrespect, intolerance, or rude behavior based on age, race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, physical attributes, disability, or marital, veteran, or socioeconomic status. Bottom line: if it’s rude or intended to be rude, don’t say it.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
|
Week |
Dates |
Topic |
Reading Assignment |
|
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1 |
8/27 - 8/31 |
Introduction, syllabus, language and anthropology
|
Smiles, Winks and Words The Origin of Speech How to Do Things With Words |
|
2 |
9/3 |
NO CLASS – LABOR DAY
|
|
|
|
9/7 |
Language and Society
|
Metaphors We Live By Language Acquisition
|
|
3 |
9/10 |
Language and Society
|
Language and Mind To Give Up On Words
|
|
|
9/14 |
Place and Space
|
where the sun doesn’t rise in the east
|
|
4 |
9/17 |
Place and Space
|
space, relativity
|
|
|
9/21 |
Social Status |
adat/indigenous hijab/headscarf
|
|
5 |
9/24 |
Social Status
|
The Social Stratification of (r) |
|
|
9/28 |
Time
|
The Relation of Habitual Thought
|
|
6 |
10/1 |
Time
|
Boroditsky 2001
|
|
|
10/5 |
Ethnicity
|
hip hop nation language |
|
7 |
10/8 |
NO CLASS FALL BREAK
|
|
|
|
10/12 |
MIDTERM
|
|
|
8 |
10/15 |
Ethnicity
|
language, race, and white public space
|
|
|
10/19 |
Gender and Identity
|
Power and Language of Men Eckert 2002 gender
|
|
9 |
10/22 |
Gender and Identity
|
“Unnatural” Gender in Hindi Dude
|
|
|
10/26 |
Style |
variation, style
|
|
10 |
10/29 |
Style
|
Regional Dialects |
|
|
11/2 |
Interaction
|
Matsumoto 1988 competence |
|
11 |
11/5 |
Interaction
|
Turn
|
|
|
11/9 |
Multilingualism
|
voice, heteroglossia |
|
12 |
11/12 |
Multilingualism PAPER DUE
|
Serious Games Bad Language, Bad Citizens
|
|
|
11/16 |
NO CLASS – AAA CONFERENCE IN SAN FRANCISCO
|
|
|
13 |
11/19 |
Language Contact FINAL PROJECT HANDED OUT
|
conflict, contact, control |
|
|
11/23 |
NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING
|
|
|
14 |
11/26 |
Language Contact
|
Most of the World’s Languages Went Extinct
|
|
|
11/30 |
Attitudes and Ideologies
|
Rewritten Rites Discourse in the Novel
|
|
15 |
12/3 |
Naming, Framing and the Internet
|
Media, Names Homo Somnians booting up Why All the Fuss?
|
|
|
12/7 |
Endangered Languages
|
Endangered Downey (see below) Indigenous Language Endangerment
|
|
16 |
12/10 |
Language as a Social Entity
|
community |
|
FINAL |
12/12 |
3:30 – 6:30 pm |
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*Downey: Language Extinction Ain’t No Big Thing?
http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/07/25/language-extinction-aint-no-big-thing/