Fiche de cours
Linguistics : Attitudes to Language
Faculté de gestion: Faculté des lettres
Responsable(s): Anita Auer
Intervenant(s): -
Pas d'horaire défini.
Séminaire
Semestre de printemps
2 heures par semaine
28 heures par semestre
Langue(s) d'enseignement: anglais
Public: Oui
Crédits: 0
Objectif
The aim of this module is to investigate language attitudes and ideologies, predominantly with regard to a range of varieties of English though other languages will be discussed as well. A secondary focus will be on encouraging critical reflection on the relationship between language in use, beliefs about language, and social structure.
The objectives are as follows:
- To introduce the main paradigms of language attitudes and language ideology research, and demonstrate their relevance for the study of language in social life
- To develop a critical understanding of the ways in which beliefs about language are expressed in various types of discourse
- To evaluate research findings on attitudes towards varieties of English, past and present
- To extend knowledge of research methods in sociolinguistics
- To understand how linguistic styles or features come to have social and ideological meanings
- To address the ideological nature of language and the relationship between language use and beliefs about language, prejudice and discrimination
Contenu
This course introduces the key concepts and issues involved in the study of attitudes to languages and language varieties. It will enable you to develop a critical understanding of the ways in which beliefs about language are expressed in various types of discourse in the past and present and where these beliefs come from. We will, for example, discuss the attitudes of Jonathan Swift in his Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue, the language ideologies expressed in the musical My Fair Lady, and the use of present-day attitudes to varieties of English for character building in TV Shows such as A Game of Thrones, among others. In addition, we will address the ideological nature of language and the relationship of language and stereotype, prejudice and discrimination. Finally, we will introduce the main research methods used in the study of language attitudes, including: language surveys, interviews, matched-guise experiment, and quantitative and qualitative techniques in 'perceptual dialectology'.
Evaluation
Details regarding evaluation will be discussed in the first class of this course. The information will be provided on Moodle.
Bibliographie
Details concerning course readings will be provided in the first class and on the course Moodle page.
Exigences du cursus d'études
- Introduction to English Language and Linguistics (IELL)
- Development of the English Language (DEL)
- Anglais au moins niveau B2
