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America is a country of great diversity—racially, economically, politically. How does this diversity translate to the way we speak? What can we learn about a person from how they talk?
This course investigates the relationship between language and social diversity in the US. We’ll cover issues including race, gender, sexual orientation, and power relations, exploring how each impacts (and is impacted by) our way of talking.
We’ll be doing hands-on data collection, learning the methods employed by sociolinguists to gather and analyze peoples’ speech. We’ll also discuss topics including the “Observer’s Paradox”, region identity (especially Texan identity), official languages, sex and gender, and political language.
This course is suited to anyone interested in anthropology, sociology, psychology, or just how people and their language work.
For creative writers:
In order for a character to be believable, she must speak authentically. In this course we will discuss the many ways that people speak in the US, providing insight into how you can convey details about your character’s social, regional, and personal identity.
For literature majors/minors:
Authors take advantage of many clues to provide details about a character’s social, regional, and personal identity. In this course, we’ll discuss the ways that an author can manipulate a character’s speech to telegraph their identity.
For TCR majors/minors:
Social and regional variation provide a challenge to standardization of texts. In this course we’ll discuss the many varieties of American English, providing insight into the possible pitfalls of assuming that everyone who speaks English is actually speaking the same language.
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Posted:
7/10/2015
Originator:
Lindsay Inscore
Email:
lindsay.hallowell@ttu.edu
Department:
English
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