This course introduces the student to linguistic description of
various familiar discourse types such as advertising, magazine or
newspaper articles, instructional pamphlets, sports commentary and
interviews and how social factors such as gender, status and context
influence language. Through real-life language samples, students
will have an opportunity to use various analytical concepts and
techniques to critically examine the social aspects of language used
and encountered in daily life. The goal is to engage student to
explore how language functions or performs its particular aims in
different language situations and to begin investigating the
relationship between language and society.