Name of course: Historical sociolinguistics
Instructor: Dr. Alexander D. Hoyt, senior lector (lecturer in foreign languages)
ECTS points: 5
Language of instruction: English
Classroom hours weekly: lecture: 1 seminar: 2
Semester: Winter
Status: elective course
Maximum enrolment: 20 students
Course description: The goals of this course are twofold. The first goal is to introduce students to the field of historical sociolinguistics, in which scholars studying the history of individual languages combine the methods of historical linguistics with those of sociolinguistics (especially variationist, or “Labovian”, sociolinguistics) in an attempt to reconstruct processes of language change in their social context. Research in this field tends to focus on texts that most closely represent spoken language (e.g., personal letters, theatrical plays, and court testimony transcriptions). The majority of historical sociolinguistic research has been done on Early Modern English, the largest project by far being the Corpus of Early English Correspondence (CEEC), a Finnish project headed by Terttu Nevalainen. Most other research in the field has been done on northern European languages such as Swedish, German, Dutch, and French. The second goal is to give students some “hands-on” experience. They will be shown how a completed digital corpus (e.g., the CEEC) can be used for basic research. In addition, students will participate in the construction of a sociolinguistic corpus by transcribing and analyzing personal letters written (or received) in Croatia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although the primary focus of this project is linguistic, students specializing in other fields, such as history, sociology, communications, and political science, should also find the course interesting from the socio-historical point of view, because the letters studied will give them insight into the everyday problems and experiences of people living in Croatia a century ago.
Grading method: The final grade is based on continuous assessment, which includes regular attendance, preparation for and participation in class, and timely submission of both an informal group report (2-4 students) and an individual term paper. the paper is worth 40% of the final grade; the group report, 30%; and other elements of continuous assessment, 30%. Students must fulfill all elements of continuous assessment in order to pass the course.
Course units:
12.10.15 Introduction to the course.
19.10.15 What is historical sociolinguistics? Origins of the field.
26.10.15 Source Types Used in Historical Sociolinguistic Inquiry
2.11.15 Corpus of Early English Correspondence (CEEC)
9.11.15 Letters as Loot Corpus (Dutch sailing letters)
16.11.15 Social History and Language Change.
30.11.15 Language and Dialect. English, Croatian, other examples
7.12.15 Standardization. Two examples: English and Croatian
14.12.15 Different Ways of Looking at Language Change
21.12.15 The Uniformitarian Principle
11.1.16 Linguistic and Social Variables
18.1.16 Social Networks
25.1.16 Conclusion
Required reading:
– Hernandez Campoy, Juan M. & J. Camilo Conde Silvestre (eds.). 2012. The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
Secondary reading:
– Barton, David & Hall, Nigel (eds.). 1999. Letter writing as a social practice (Studies in Written Language and Literacy 9). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
– Brozović, Dalibor i Pavle Ivić (1988), Jezik, srpskohrvatski/hrvatskosrpski, hrvatski ili srpski. Zagreb: Jugoslavenski i leksikografski zavod “Miroslav Krleža”.
– Lass, Roger. 1997. Historical linguistics and language change. (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 81). Cambridge: C.U.P.
– Milan Moguš. 1995. A History of the Croatian Language: Toward a Common Standard. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus. Translated by Alexander D. Hoyt & Lelija Sočanac.
– Nevalainen, Terttu & Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena (eds.). 1996. Sociolinguistics and language history: Studies based on the Corpus of Early English Correspondence (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics 15). Amsterdam – Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
– Nevalainen, Terttu & Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena. 2003. Historical sociolinguistics: Language Change in Tudor and Stuart England. London: Pearson Education.
– Nevalainen, Terttu & Tanskanen, Sanna-Kaisa (eds.). Letter writing (Benjamins Current Topics 1). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [previously published in the Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 5:2 (2004)]
– Romaine, Suzanne. 1982. Socio-historical linguistics: Its status and methodology (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 34). Cambridge: C.U.P.
