Course overview
The impact of globalization and talknology (talk + technology) on languages is far-reaching. Next to the loss or endangerment of most of the world's 7000 languages, a small number of super languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and English are emerging. The course will examine to what extent the emergence of global languages is due to deliberate political decisions and to what extent it is due to the unintended outcome of major social, cultural or talknological change. Whilst the course will pay particular attention to global English and the new English's (such as Singlish, Indian English, Hong Kong English and Chinglish), coverage will also be given to the previous or potential global roles of languages such as Latin, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese (though no knowledge of a language other than English will be assumed or required). The course will also analyse constructed languages (Conlangs) and will innovatively classify them into Auxiliary Languages (Auxlangs) such as Esperanto, Ido and Volapik, and Artistically-constructed Languages (Artlangs) such as Klingon, Quenya and Tsolyani. It will look at language policy and multilingualism, and examine the transparent and camouflaged impact of English on the world's languages. It will also explore issues of language, religion, identity and nationhood.
Course learning outcomes
- Locate accurate, reliable and up-to-date information on sociolinguistics, multilingualism and language contact
- Analyse contact between cultures as manifested in lexical items such as words and phrases
- Observe how language is used and how it varies across the array of contexts in which we engage in daily
- Engage with the technical discourse within the fields of contact and socio-linguistics
- Link linguistic theories to the practical reality of language use and variation in different cultures and societies around the world
- Identify the role played by language in cross-cultural encounters and how it can be negotiated
- Identify the specific linguistic elements that speakers use to convey meaning in speech and how they vary across cultures
- Understand how and why languages change over time and the outcomes of language contact and technology on languages and endangered languages
- Recognize the power of global languages and the effect they have on the world's languages
- Do linguistic fieldwork in their own life using the tools and theories from the course and apply them to the world around them