This course examines the relationship between language and society.
Possible issues discussed include the nature of sociolinguistics;
the relevance of sociolinguistics to linguistic theory;
pidginization and creolization; bilingualism, multilingualism, and
code-switching; language change; language choice and language
planning; why people use different languages or styles in different
situations; the importance that geography and residential history,
age, sex and gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, education,
and/or attitudes have on language use and development; language
endangerment and language death; etc.

Every effort will be made to conduct class meetings in discussion,
rather than lecture, format.  Therefore, students' (pro)active
participation in class meetings and discussion of assigned readings
will be required.  [Note:  students who do not like to speak and
otherwise participate actively in class may question whether this
class is appropriate for them.]  Additionally, students will gain
considerable "hands-on" practical experience DOING sociolinguistics
through regular homework assignments and a semester-long
collaborative research project (i.e., that the class will work on
together, as a team).

There is no official pre-requisite for this course, but students are
assumed to be familiar with basic concepts and methods of linguistic
analysis.  Experience shows that students who have already taken
L103 tend to perform better than those who have not.