Linguistics 300: Language Variation and Place

Spring 2019

Class Meetings: Tuesday/Thursday
Time:12:30pm-1:50pm
Classroom:Annenberg Hall G01
Instructor:Annette D'Onofrio
Email:donofrio@northwestern.edu
Office:2016 Sheridan Rd., Room 106
Office hours:Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 (or by appt.)
Week Topic Readings Assignments
1 April 2
  1. Introduction & Levels of Dialect
  1. If you haven't taken Ling 220/320 or need a refresher, please read: Wolfram & Schilling 2015.
    Chapter 1: Dialects, Standards, and Vernaculars
April 4
  1. Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling. 2015. Chapter 3: Levels of Dialect. American English: Dialects & Variation, 3rd Edition.
2 April 9
  1. Language Variation, Change, & Diffusion
  1. Wolfram & Schilling 2015. Chapter 2: Why Dialects?
  1. Word List Assignment Part 1: Recordings
    [Due Thursday 11 a.m. 4/11]
April 11
  1. Wolfram & Schilling 2015. Chapter 5, Section 4: Dialect Diffusion
  2. Dinkin, Aaron. 2012. Toward a Unified Theory of Chain Shifting.
3 April 16
  1. U.S. Regional Dialects
  1. Wolfram & Schilling 2015. Chapter 5: Regional Varieties of English
  2. Click around on the Atlas of North American English (Labov, William, Sharon Ash & Charles Boberg 2006)
  1. Word List Assignment Part 2: Segmented TextGrids
    [Due Wednesday 11 a.m. 4/17]
April 18
    Pick one of the following to read:
  1. Becker, Kara. 2014. The social motivations of reversal: Raised BOUGHT in New York City English.
  2. Dodsworth, Robin & Mary Kohn. 2012. Urban rejection of the vernacular: The SVS undone.
  3. Podesva, Robert J., Annette D'Onofrio, Janneke Van Hofwegen & Seung Kyung Kim. 2015. Country ideology and the California Vowel Shift.
4 April 23
  1. The Inland North and the Northern Cities Shift
  1. Wagner et al. 2016. Reversal and Re-Organization of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan.
  2. McCarthy 2011. The Northern Cities Shift in Chicago.
  1. Word List Assignment Write Up
    [Due Thursday 11 a.m. 4/25]
April 25
  1. Labov, William 2010. Yankee Cultural Imperialism and the Northern Cities Shift.
  2. Van Herk, Gerard. 2008. Fear of black phonology: the Northern Cities Shift as Linguistic White Flight.
5 April 30
  1. Chicago and neighborhood effects
  1. Binford, Henry C. 2004. Multi-centered Chicago.
  2. Sampson, Robert J. Great American City, Chapter 1: Placed.
  1. Perceptual Dialectology Assignment: Data Collection
    [Due Tuesday 11 a.m. 4/30]
May 2
  1. Perceptual Dialectology
  1. Preston, Dennis 1998. They speak really bad English down South and in New York City.
  2. Bucholtz, Mary, Nancy Bermudez, Victor Fung, Lisa Edwards and Rosalva Vargas (2007) Hella Nor Cal or Totally So Cal?: The Perceptual Dialectology of California.
6 May 7
  1. Race, place and language
  1. Omi, Michael & Howard Winant. 2002. Racial Formation.
  2. Optional: Lipsitz, George. 2011. Introduction: Race, Place & Power.
  1. Perceptual Dialectology Assignment Write Up
    [Due Thursday 11 a.m. 5/9]
May 9
    Pick one of the following to read:
  1. Fought, Carmen. 1999. A majority sound change in a minority community: /u/-fronting in Chicano English.
  2. Wong, Amy Wing-mei, & Lauren Hall-Lew. 2014. Regional variability and ethnic identity: Chinese Americans in New York City and San Francisco.
  3. King, Sharese. 2016. On Negotiating Racial and Regional Identities: Vocalic Variation Among African Americans in Bakersfield, California.
7 May 14
  1. Enregisterment & Performance of
    Place-linked Language
  1. Remlinger, Kathryn. 2003. Everyone up here: Enregisterment and identity in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.
  2. Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1998. "Self-Conscious" Speech: The Performance Register in Ocracoke English.
  1. Final project topic description and bibliography [One per group due Thursday 11:59 p.m. 5/16]
May 16
  1. Johnstone, Barbara. 2011. Dialect enregisterment in performance.
8 May 21
  1. Place identity and movement
  1. Montgomery, Chris & Emma Moore 2017. Introduction: Language and a Sense of Place.
  2. Reed, Paul 2018. The Importance of Appalachian Identity: A Case Study in Rootedness.
  1. Place Performance Analysis Assignment
    [Due Sunday 11:59 p.m. 5/26]
May 23 Pick one of the following to read:
  1. Nycz, Jennifer. 2018. Stylistic variation among mobile speakers: Using old and new regional variables to construct complex place identity.
  2. Carmichael, Katie. 2017. Displacement and local linguistic practices: R-lessness in post-Katrina Greater New Orleans.
9 May 28
  1. Wrap Up & Project Presentations
  1. Project presentations in class
  2. Upload slides to Canvas by start of class on your presentation day
May 30
    10 June 4/6
    1. Reading Week - No Class


    1. Final Paper [due Monday June 10, 11:59 p.m.]