Course overview
This is the capstone course for the Linguistics Major. All languages vary internally in accordance with a range of parameters including the gender, age, social class, occupation, origins etc. of their speakers. Most languages have distinct regional and social varieties. They also vary according to the contexts in which they are used and the purposes for which they are employed. All living languages constantly change over time in response to innovations introduced by younger generations, technological change or contact with other languages or with other varieties of the same language. Drawing on descriptive and analytic skills developed during their undergraduate study of linguistics, students will undertake independent study of language variation and change, assembling their own body of data either through archival, library, internet research or field research.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand the need for research ethics and the social and community impact of research activity and research output
- Collect and assemble a body of linguistic data for analysis
- Understand the principles of sociolinguistic variation within a speech community
- Understand how and why languages change over time
- Apply the comparative method to a body of data drawn from a group of related languages
- Apply a variety of analytic methods and approaches to a body of language data
- Choose an appropriate method to analyse the body of data at hand
- Communicate findings orally and in written form
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