This course is an introduction to the theoretical and empirical foundations of sociolinguistic variation, with a specific-focus on Spanish-speaking and/or Hispanic/Latine communities. The course will start off with discussions of why we study sociolinguistics and how we can use our research towards efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. From there the course will introduce students to the field’s history, starting with variationist practices moving into questions of performance and indexicality. We will also pause before the semester break to have a week-long, practical workshop on quantitative analysis of linguistic data using the software, R. Afterwards we will dive into linguistic ideologies and language attitudes, which will set the stage for our final few weeks on what happens when languages/dialects come into contact and how all of the above applies to Spanish spoken here in the U.S. and more critically, how it all applies to the speakers of Spanish here in the U.S.
Tuesdays and Thursdays (9:30 - 10:50am, location TBD).
Students registering for CRN 49967 require graduate standing and students registering for CRN 49966 have SPAN 307 or SPAN 309 as prerequisites.
Instructor: Salvatore Callesano
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