Wednesday 5:30-8:40
Williams Hall, Room 421

Instructor:	Maciej Baranowski
Office:	Linguistics Laboratory 3550 Market St. Suite 250 Philadelphia, PA 19104 tel. (215) 898-4912
Office hours:	by appointment

email address:

maciej@babel.ling.upenn.edu

Final grade: 30% mid-term exam, 50% 2 field projects, 20% homework assignments

 

TEXTS:
	Language Files. 8th Edition. 2001. Columbus: Ohio State U. Press. [=LF]
	Wolfram, W. & Schilling-Estes, N. 1998. American English. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. [=AE] available at the Penn Bookstore, 36th St. & Walnut St.; a copy of each is on reserve at Rosengarten
	Linguistics 102 Bulk Pack. [=BP] available at the SEAS Copy Center, 143 Towne Building (Engineering; basement)

 
 

Date	Topic
22 May	Introduction: What is sociolinguistics? LF 10.1, 10.2 Phonetics: The sounds of language The vowels of English: How to hear them and write them down  LF 3.1, 3.3  LX Problem 1: English vowels  The consonants of English: Their production and organisation LF 3.2 LX Problem 2: English consonants Homework assignment Useful links: Sounds from Peter Ladefoged's book Vowels and Consonants Sounds from Peter Ladefoged's book A Course in Phonetics International Phonetic Association
29 May	Change over time: History of the English vowel system  LF 12.10,12.11 Chain shifting  AE 327-328  BP 1. Labov: The three dialects of English AE Ch. 1 & 2
5 June	Geographical diversity: Dialects of American English LF 10.4 AE Ch. 3, 4 LX Problem 6 Atlas of North American English:  http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phonoatlas Philadelphia dialect area  BP 2 Labov: The social origins of sound change LA Times article on the Atlas of North American English
12 June	Phonology: The organisation of sounds Phonemic analysis, complementary distribution, and inherent variation LF 4.1, 4.3 Phonological rules LF 4.2 LF 4.4 exercises TBA Morphology: The shape of meaning  The elemental parts of words LF 5.1, 5.3 LF 5.2 exercises 1-6 Homework assignment
19 June	Socioeconomic stratification of language LF 10.3 AE 6.1-6.6 BP 3 Labov: NYC department store survey  BP 4 Kroch: The dialect of upper class Philadelphia Homework assignment
26 June	Methodology AE 9.2-9.6 Field Project 1 Stylistic differentiation AE Ch. 8 LF 10.8 BP 5 Eckert: (ay) goes to the city Chi-square assignment
3 July	The differentiation of the sexes LF 10.7 AE Ch. 7 BP 6 Eckert: Adolescent social structure BP 7 Trudgill: Sex and covert prestige Field Project 1 - final assignment
10 July	Mid-term exam ;-) Verbs of quotation BP 8 Butters: Go and be like BP 9 Blyth et al.: I’m like… Field Project 2 FP2 - Data entry
17 July	Racial differentiation African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) AE 6.6-6.11 LF 10.5 LX Problem 7: The grammar of African-American English BP 10 Labov: The logic of non-standard English BP 11 Labov & Harris: De facto segregation Homework Field Project 2 - Final report Labov's book on AAVE
24 July	Linguistic change in progress LF 12.3 BP 12 Labov: The social motivation of a sound change Change in apparent time BP 13 Feagin: R-less to R-full in three generations The role of children BP 14 Roberts & Labov: Acquisition of short a by preschool children
31 July	Languages in contact BP 15 Fought: A majority sound change BP 16 Poplack: Dialect acquisition among PR bilinguals BP 17 Chambers: Dialect acquisition Discussion of Field Project 2
7 Aug	The application of linguistics to reading AE 10, 11 Labov: Can reading failure be reversed? Interview with William Labov - June 2002 in mp3