Language In Society

AY2016/2017 Semester 1

Topics covered include: approaches to the study of language in its social context; linguistic diversity and societal multilingualism; language planning and policy (with special focus on Singapore); the role of language in social stereotypes and identity; social norms and language choice; speech communities and social networks; the effect of social factors on language variation; and the linguistic consequences of language contact, with particular emphasis on contact languages (pidgins and creoles) and codeswitching.