122222 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper / MA applied linguistics (2011W)

The seminar relies on the assumption that we live in a culture of performers even those of us who have never set a foot on a stage. We perform gender, ethnicity, race, and personality, both playing up and playing against the assumptions that others make about our identities. Language is one of the most powerful ways in which identities are encoded, reflected or reinforced. To explore that, we will study samples of highly self-conscious performances of speech and writing that illustrate how social identity among individuals and speech communities is created and communicated. Taking the perspective of the individual on language, we will examine the individual’s voice in language, including current work on gendered identities, class, profession, and personal identity. The central question that will guide us will be the exploration of the role of the individual in language and linguistic theory, e.g., their understanding how linguistic forms and social meaning are evoked and forged in performance. The second main goal of the seminar is to explore how one set of linguistic forms is propagated and becomes established as dialect, language, standard language, national/international language and how individuals’ options or identities may be limited or nonexistent due to variables. Taking English as a case study, we will explore the ways in which English varies across social/ethnic groups and the ways in which English is used to create, maintain, and challenge social attitudes and relationships. In doing so, we will consider the role of education, language teachers and schools. Students will read relevant case studies to become familiar with research methods in sociolinguistics (e.g., ethnography, discourse analysis) and to help them carry out their own research projects.