Linguistics 220: Language and Society

Fall 2020

Instructor:Prof. Annette D'Onofrio
Email:donofrio@northwestern.edu
Zoom office hours:By appointment
Class Meetings: Tuesdays (asynchronous, DIY classroom)
Thursdays 11:20am-12:40pm CST (Zoom)
TA (Last names A-G):Jaime Benheim
Email:JaimeBenheim2022@u.northwestern.edu
TA (Last names H-M):Chantal De Leon
Email:ChantalDeLeon2024@u.northwestern.edu
TA (Last names N-Z):Kate Sandberg
Email:KateSandberg2024@u.northwestern.edu
General questions/meetings:Email TA for your last name
Grading-related questions:Email TA who graded your work
Week Topic Readings Assignments
1 Sep 17 (Zoom)
  1. De-mythologizing Language and Accent
  1. Lippi-Green, Rosina (2012). The standard language myth. English with an Accent, Second Edition.
  1. Reading/Lecture Response #1
    [Due Friday 11:59 p.m. CST 9/18]
2 Sep 22 (DIY)
  1. Studying Linguistic Variation and Change
  1. Fischer, John L. (1958) Social influences on the choice of a linguistic variant. Word 14:47-56.
  2. Kiesling, Scott. (2004) Dude. American Speech. p. 281-290 and Appendix
  3. Alim, H. Samy & Geneva Smitherman. (2012) Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. Excerpt from Ch. 1: p. 1-11.
  1. Reading/Lecture Response #2
    [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 9/22]
Sep 24 (Zoom)
    3 Sep 29 (DIY)
    1. Large-scale Patterns
    1. Gumperz, John J. (1968) The speech community. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
    2. Labov, William. (1972) The reflection of social processes in linguistic structures. Sociolinguistic Patterns.
    3. Trudgill, Peter. (2009) The social differentiation of English in Norwich. In Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski (eds.) The New Sociolinguistics Reader.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #3 [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 9/29]


    2. Variation Survey Data Collection for Quantitative Data Analysis Assignment
      [Due Thursday 10/1 at 11:20 a.m.: Enter results in Google Doc by beginning of class
    Oct 1 (Zoom)
    1. Quantitative data analysis workshop handout
    4 Oct 6 (DIY)
    1. Local Identities and Communities of Practice
    1. Rickford, John. (1986) The need for new approaches to social class analysis in sociolinguistics. Language & Communication 6(3): 215-221.
    2. Eckert, Penelope. (2009) Ethnography and the Study of Variation.
    3. Bucholtz, Mary. (2009) 'Why be normal?' Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #4
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 10/6]
    Oct 8 (Zoom)
    5 Oct 13 (DIY)
    1. Audience, Style, and Interaction
    1. Coupland, Nikolas. (2007) Style for audiences. Style: Language Variation and Identity. 54-80.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #5
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 10/13]

    2. Quantitative Analysis Project
      [Due by Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. 10/14]
    3. Strongly recommended: Fulfill at least one experimental credit toward your experimental requirement by the end of this week
    Oct 15 (Zoom)
    6 Oct 20 (DIY)
    1. Stylistic Practice and Social Meaning
    1. Podesva, Robert J. (2007) Three sources of stylistic meaning. Texas Linguistics Forum (Proceedings of the Symposium About Language and Society) 51:134-143.
    2. Mendoza-Denton, Norma. (1996) Muy macha: Gender and ideology in gang discourse about makeup. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology. 61(1).
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #6
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 10/20]

    2. Style project description and data links
      [Due Thursday 11:59 p.m. 10/22]
    Oct 22 (Zoom)
    7 Oct 27 (DIY)
    1. Social Change and Language Change
    1. Gal, Susan. (2009) Language change and sex roles in a bilingual community. In Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski (eds.) The New Sociolinguistics Reader.
    2. Van Herk, Gerard. (2008) Fear of black phonology: the Northern Cities Shift as Linguistic White Flight. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 14(2).
    3. Zimman, Lal. (2014) Facebook, the gender binary, and third-person pronouns. OUPBlog.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #7
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 10/27]
    Oct 29 (Zoom)
    8 Nov 3 (DIY)
    1. Performance and Performativity
    1. Read at least ONE of the following:
    2. Calder, Jeremy. (2019) From Sissy to Sickening: The Indexical Landscape of /s/ in SoMa, San Francisco. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.
    3. Pratt, Teresa & Annette D'Onofrio. (2017) Jaw setting and the California Vowel Shift in parodic performance. Language in Society.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #8
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 11/3]


    2. Style projects due Thursday 11:59 p.m. 11/5
    Nov 5 (Zoom)
    9 Nov 10 (DIY)
    1. Authenticity, Crossing & Appropriation
    1. Fought, Carmen. (2006) Chapter 10: Crossing: may I borrow your ethnicity? Language and Ethnicity.
    2. Eberhardt, Maeve & Kara Freeman. (2015) 'First things first, I'm the realest': Linguistic appropriation, white privilege, and the hip-hop persona of Iggy Azalea. Journal of Sociolinguistics 19(3): 303-327.
    1. Reading/Lecture Response #9
      [Due Tuesday 11:59 p.m. 11/10]


    2. One-paragraph final paper topic description and bibliography due
      [Friday 11:59 p.m. 11/13]
    Nov 12 (Zoom)
    10 Nov 17 (DIY)
    1. Changing the Game
    1. Rickford, John & Sharese King. (2016) Language and linguistics on trial: Hearing Rachel Jeantel (and other vernacular speakers) in the courtroom and beyond. Language.
    2. Alim, H. Samy & Geneva Smitherman. (2012) Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. Ch. 6, "Change the Game": p. 167-192.
    1. Final reflection due by start of last Zoom class [Thursday 11/19 11:20 a.m. CST]
    Nov 19 (Zoom)
    11 Nov 24 (optional Zoom)
    1. Optional Zoom discussion (at class time) - Bring final paper questions and general questions!
    1. Experimental requirement must be completed by the end of reading week [Tuesday December 1, 11:59pm CST]

    2. Final Paper [due Wednesday December 2, by 11:59pm]