UCL - Sociolinguistics

[CLIG2160]

[15h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Michel Francard

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of this course, the student will be able:
1.To understand the conceptual framework developed by sociolinguistics for the analysis of the relationship between the speaker, the language and the social group.
2.To understand the methods of contemporary sociolinguistics, while applying critical points of view.
3.To make use of both theoretical and methodological competences as acquired in concrete situations (namely field inquiries).

Main themes

This course is threefold :
1.The study of theoretical concepts : linguistic variation (language, dialect, "patois", etc.), languages in contact (bilingualism, diglossia, etc.), linguistic community, linguistic market (speakers and norms), linguistic utterances and speakers' representations.
2.The presentation of the technical skills required by the sociolinguistic inquiry (creating questionnaires, selecting samples, data processing, etc.).
3.The application of theoretical and methodological skills through field work.

Content and teaching methods

The course will first trace the historical context of the emergence of sociolinguistics and will thereafter present the various trends which developed within this discipline. For each of them, the course will focus, on the one hand, on privileged issues and visions of the links between language and society, and on the other hand, on usual research methods and types of data.

These different trends are then applied to a particular theme. In 2009-2010, the relation between language and sexual differentiation is the selected theme.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Assessment :
The assessment is based on students' personal research, which will be synthesised in a written paper.

Course material :
A course website will be available through Icampus and will allow students to access information and documents related to the course (notably various papers illustrating each approach discussed during the course).