Sociolinguistics

Teacher(s)

Hambye Philippe;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Prerequisites

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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.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	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).

Content

The course will first recount the historical context of the emergence of sociolinguistics and will thereafter present the various trends which were developed within this discipline (with a focus on their epistemological and methodological orientations). For each of them, the course will focus, on the one hand, on their main issues and on the vision of the links between language and society they put forward, and on the other hand, on their main research methods and types of data. This journey into the history and trends of sociolinguistics allows to discuss different themes (linguistic variation in relation with social class, age, sex ; linguistic attitudes in the French-speaking world, role language plays in the circulation of ideologies and critical analysis of political discourse, etc.).

Teaching methods

The course will combine teachers' lectures with students' discussion on sociolinguistic issues, also based on the reading of seminal papers in sociolinguistics. Training is continued through meetings between teacher and individual students aiming at preparing the final assessment.

Evaluation methods

The assessment is based on students' personal research, which will focus on the study of a linguistic reality, selectd by each student, which will be approached as a social fact.
This research will be synthesized in a written paper and presented during an oral exam when students should also be able to answer questions regarding the general content of the course. Only students who will habe submitted a first draft of their research question and bibliography on a given date  will be allowed to submit their final paper.

Other information

English-friendly course: course taught in French but offering facilities in English.

Bibliography

Voir site Moodle du cours.

Faculty or entity

ELAL