Wednesday 12-14                                                   

The lecture will give an introduction to sociolinguistics, the study of the interrelationship between language and society. It will focus on the study of language in its social context, demonstrating that the language speakers use is full of social messages about who they are, where they come from, and who they associate with. That this kind of information is not just additional or even irrelevant shows in the ways hearers may judge a person's background, character, and intentions simply on the basis of the person's language, dialect, or, in some instances, even the choice of a single word.

Among the topics addressed in the lecture are:

I. Regional and social variation in language.
II. Language and ethnicity.
III. Language, sex and gender.
IV. Language and social context.
V. Languages in contact.
VI. Language planning.

 Requirements for credit points/Leistungsnachweis: final written test

No enrolment required