MA Linguistics / Course details

The course introduces students to the practice of quantitative sociolinguistics and urban dialectology. Students, working in groups of four, conduct sociolinguistic interviews with Mancunians of different ages and socio-economic backgrounds in different parts of the city. They study their speech patterns, coding the speech data and analysing it statistically, and write research papers describing stable phonological variation and tracing sound change in progress in the dialect. Data coding and training in statistics conducted in class will focus is on consonantal variables, such as T-glottalling, and H-dropping, but students are free to engage with their own projects for the final paper. The course provides a foundation for MA and PhD dissertation work in sociolinguistics and urban dialectology.

Co-requisite units 

MA Phonetics & Phonology or another relevant unit/individual reading in Phonetics and Phonology (please contact course convenor if in doubt)

The principal aims of the course unit are as follows:

·         To introduce students to the practice of quantitative sociolinguistics and urban dialectology

·         To teach students to gather speech data for sociolinguistic studies, to doe the data and to analyse it using statistical methods

·         To teach students to write research reports on sociolinguistic variation and change in a speech community on the basis of the quantitative analysis of speech data

To prepare students for MA and PhD dissertation work in sociolinguistics and urban dialectology

Learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:
By the end of the course the students should be aware of the methodologies of variationist sociolinguistics; they should have an understanding of the quantitative analysis of linguistic data and of statistical significance testing; they should have an understading of the methods of observing and analysing linguistic change in progress.

Practical skills:
Students should be able to conduct sociolinguistic interviews and to analyse linguistic data quantitatively and to evaluate the methodologies used in the studies within the field. They should be able to apply standard data analysis techniques and background concepts to new data.

Intellectual skills:
Students should develop skills in critically judging and evaluating evidence, recognising flaws in arguments, and assessing the merits of contrasting explanations.

Transferable skills:
Students should develop skills in making high-quality audio recordings; they should develop skills in interpreting information presented in the form of diagrams, tables and graphs; they should be able to present new data in the form of tables and graphs; they should be able to apply and interpret the chi-quare test of statistical significance; they should also develop skills of successful self-directed study and research, with appropriate time-management.

By the end of this course students will:

• be aware of the methodologies of variationist sociolinguistics;
• have an understanding of the quantitative analysis of linguistic data using logistic regression and of statistical significance testing;

have an understanding of the methods of observing and analysing linguistic change in progress.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

develop skills in critically judging and evaluating evidence, recognising flaws in arguments, and assessing the merits of contrasting explanations.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

·         conduct sociolinguistic interviews and to analyse linguistic data quantitatively and to evaluate the methodologies used in the studies within the field.

to apply standard data analysis techniques and background concepts to new data.

Students should develop skills in making high-quality audio recordings; they should develop skills in interpreting information presented in the form of diagrams, tables and graphs; they should be able to present new data in the form of tables and graphs; they should be able to apply and interpret the chi-square test of statistical significance and to conduct logistic regression analysis; they should also develop skills of successful self-directed study and research, with appropriate time-management.

Oral and Written feedback on assessed coursework

Tagliamonte, S. 2006. Analyzing sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: CUP.

Articles and book chapters to be specified at the beginning of the course unit.