Spanish III Focus on Linguistics: Man, Language and Society. Spanish Sociolinguistics

The course introduces the theoretical basics of sociolinguistic variation in different Spanish-speaking societies. Linguistic attitudes and language variation in multi- and monolingual societies related to variables such as ethnicity, gender, age and socioeconomic status are dealt with. In the course we discuss language contact, multi-lingualism and code-switching. Students are also introduced to ongoing phenomena such as language death and revitalization related to minority languages in the Spanish-speaking world. The course also includes an introduction to sociopragmatic theory and methods where current thinking on pragmatic terms like politeness in Romance languages like Spanish are studied. We especially focus on the link between politeness, speech acts and gender in general and in netbased communciation in particular. Included in the practical component of the course are critical review and a presentation of both students‘ own textual interpretations and analyses as well as those of others. As a result, the course is an introduction to different methods of sociopragmatic and sociolinguistic investigation which can advantageously be applied in the scientific paper the students write with a direct connection to the Spanish language.