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Linguistics Dept. UC Santa Cruz 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077
Current
General
Additional Resources
Maintained by
webling@ling.ucsc.edu © 2009 UC Santa Cruz
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| Language, Society, and Culture Home Ling 80C: Language, Society, and Culture This course will examine how language interacts with structures of social and political authority. We will also examine what mechanisms are used in contemporary societies to maintain the position of prestige dialects and those who use them. In particular, we will examine the mythology of language purity and "correct usage" that is often an important part of the support- system for a prestige dialect. The manner in which this system of support interweaves and interacts with broader patterns of social and political control will also be considered. We will explore how similar patterns and processes are often found in bilingual and multilingual communities, explore the political and social conditions that make for stable or unstable multilingualism, and discuss bilingual communities in the US in connection with patterns of immigration. The course also discusses the recent political successes of the Official English Movement and systems that have not always been afforded the status of 'real language'. We'll look at 'sign languages' and at pidgins and creoles and look at recent claims that language extinction is now taking place at a pace hitherto unknown. Why is this happening? Does it matter that it's happening? If it does matter, can or should anything be done about it?
Prerequisites: none. General Education Code: T5 (Topical: Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences).
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