Unit name | Aspects of Modern Sociolinguistics |
---|---|
Unit code | GERM22029 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Langer |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of German |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will provide an introduction to the relationship between language and society, as applied to the German-speaking countries. In weekly lectures and seminars we will be investigating “who speaks how with whom where and when” (J. Fishman, 1965) and how particular language varieties are perceived and used in the construction of speakers' identities. More concretely, we will discuss topics such as the following: German in the diaspora, the standard language ideology, language and region, language and gender, migration and multilingualism, amongst others. The precise list of topics may vary from year to year. In addition to these content-based discussions, students will be introduced to principles of data collection and interpretation, as applied to the sociolinguistic study of German and other West and North Germanic languages.
Students will demonstrate:
1 lecture and 1 seminar per week
1x 2000 word essay weighted 50% each testing ILO's 1-4.
1 x 2 hour written exam weighted 50% each testing ILO's 1-4.
Barbour, Stephen & Patrick Stevenson. 1998. Variation im Deutschen. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
Clyne, Michael, The German Language in a Changing Europe, Cambridge, CUP, 21999.
Coulmas, Florian. 2005. Sociolinguistics. The study of speakers’ choices. Cambridge: CUP
König, Werner, dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache, München, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2001.
Stevenson, Patrick, Kristine Horner, Nils Langer, and Gertrud Reershemius. The German-speaking world. London: Routledge. 2015