Linguistics 312: Experimental Sociolinguistics

Winter 2022

Meetings: Tuesday/Thursday
Time:9:30am-10:50am CST
Classroom:Cresap 101
TA:Jenn Dibbern
Email:JenniferDibbern2023@u.northwestern.edu
Office Hrs:TBA
Instructor:Annette D'Onofrio
Email:donofrio@northwestern.edu
Office:Room 106, 2016 Sheridan Rd.
Office Hrs:Tues 11-12 (or by appt.)
Week Topic Readings Assignments
1 Jan 4 (Zoom)
  1. Introduction



  1. Lecture questions due by Thursday 2:00pm CST
Jan 6 (Zoom)
  1. Theories of Sociolinguistic Variation
  1. Eckert, Penelope (2012). Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation.
  2. Optional: Labov, William. (1972) Chapter 4: The reflection of social processes in linguistic structures. Sociolinguistic Patterns.
2 Jan 11 (Zoom)
  1. Social Meaning and Style in Listener Evaluations
  1. Cargile, Aaron C., Howard Giles, Ellen B. Ryan & James J. Bradac (1994). Language attitudes as a social process: A conceptual model and new directions.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST

  2. Discussion board posts due by Wednesday 11:59pm CST (initial post) and Thursday 11 a.m. CST (reply)
Jan 13 (Zoom)
  1. Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2009). The nature of sociolinguistic perception.
  2. Levon, Erez (2007). Sexuality in context: Variation and the sociolinguistic perception of identity.
3 Jan 18
  1. Social Expectations and Linguistic Perception
  1. Drager, Katie (2010). Sociophonetic variation in speech perception.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST

  2. Discussion board posts due by Wednesday 11:59pm CST (initial post) and Thursday 11 a.m. CST (reply)
Jan 20
  1. Strand, Elizabeth A. (1999). Uncovering the role of gender stereotypes in speech perception.
  2. Koops, Christian, Elizabeth Gentry & Andrew Pantos (2008). The effect of perceived speaker age on the perception of PIN and PEN vowels in Houston, Texas.
  3. Optional additional reading: D'Onofrio, Annette. 2018. Personae and phonetic detail in sociolinguistic signs.
4 Jan 25
  1. Imitation and Accommodation
  1. Giles, Howard, Nikolas Coupland & Justine Coupland (1991). Ch. 1: Accommodation theory: Communication, context, and consequence. Contexts of Accommodation.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST

  2. Discussion board posts due by Wednesday 11:59pm CST (initial post) and Thursday 11 a.m. CST (reply)
Jan 27
  1. Pardo, Jennifer (2006). On phonetic convergence during conversational interaction.
  2. Yu, Alan C. L., Carissa Abrego-Collier & Morgan Sonderegger (2013). Phonetic imitation from an individual-difference perspective: Subjective attitude, personality and 'autistic' traits.

  3. Optional additional reading: Clopper & Dossey (2021). Phonetic convergence to Southern American English: Acoustics and perception.
5 Feb 1
  1. Experimental Paradigms and Design
  1. Drager, Katie (2018). Experimental Research Methods in Sociolinguistics Ch. 3-4.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST

  2. Brief topic description and methods outline [Due Thursday 2:00 p.m. CST]
Feb 3
  1. Project Design Workshop
  1. Review Tuesday slides, Drager (2018) readings; any readings from additional resources on Canvas relevant to your study ideas
6 Feb 8
  1. Awareness and Control
  1. Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2016). Towards a cognitively realistic model of meaningful sociolinguistic variation.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST

  2. Discussion board posts due by Wednesday 11:59pm CST (initial post) and Thursday 11 a.m. CST (reply)
  4. Abstracts and bibliography due Friday 5/15 11:59 p.m.
Feb 10
  1. Levon, Erez & Sue Fox (2014). Social salience and the sociolinguistic monitor: A case study of ING and TH-fronting in Britain.
  2. Squires, Lauren (2016). Processing grammatical differences: Perceiving versus noticing.
7 Feb 15
  1. Experience & Stereotypes
  1. Drager, Katie & M. Joelle Kirtley (2016). Awareness, salience and stereotypes in exemplar-based models of speech production and perception.
  3. Sumner, Meghan & Arthur G. Samuel (2009). The effect of experience on the perception and representation of dialect variants.
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST



  2. Discussion board posts due by Wednesday 11:59pm CST (initial post) and Thursday 11 a.m. CST (reply)
Feb 17
  1. McGowan, Kevin B. (2015). Social expectation improves speech perception in noise.
  2. Szakay, Anita, Molly Babel & Jeanette King (2016). Social categories are shared across bilinguals' lexicons.
8 Feb 22
  1. Wrap Up & Future Directions
  1. Lecture questions due by Tuesday 2:00pm CST


  2. First draft project presentations due
  3. Upload slides/recordings to your group in Canvas by 11 a.m. Thursday 5/28
  4. Feedback worksheets due to Canvas by Friday 5/29 at 11:59 p.m.
Feb 24
  1. Project Presentation Workshops: Small Groups
    9 March 1
    1. Project Presentations: Full Class
    1. All projects presented in class via Zoom (order randomly generated)
    2. Final Paper [due Monday March 14, 11:59 p.m.]
    March 3