Instr: Noonan, Michael
Office: CRT 386; 229-4539
e-mail: noonan@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: MTWR; 1pm - 3:31pm; CRT 368 (6/23-7/19)
This course will present an overview of sociolinguistics, focusing on the ways in which people use linguistic choices to communicate social information about themselves, their attitudes toward others, and their understanding of the social contexts they find themselves in. With regard to social information about the speakers themselves, linguistic choices can mark characteristics of the speaker such as age, sex, ethnic group, social class, education, occupation, lifestyle choice, and group identification. With regard to speakers' attitudes, linguistic choices can reveal differences in power and status between the speaker and his/her audience. With regard to the social contexts of language use, linguistic choices can reflect differences in topic, setting, medium [spoken vs written language], mode of linguistic interaction [conversation, story-telling, lecture, etc.]. The class will also address issues such as cross-cultural interaction, multilingualism, language planning, and language in education.
