Dates of the course: Jan. 8 - Apr. 10, 2008 (plus final exam during examination period)
Instructor: Stefan Dollinger
E-mail address: dstefan AT interchange.ubc.ca
Here are the midterm results. BEFORE you access the pdf file with the results, keep in mind that there are lots of points still up for grabs in the course. If you haven't done as well as you would have liked, make sure to nail the projects first. If you achieved or even exceeded your goals: congrats and well done. If you have any questions, make sure to get in touch with me. We'll be talking about the exam when I return them on Tuesday.
A) Resources
Login Online Citations Database
Contact your class mates (jpeg file)
B) Class notes
Remember that you can pick up unclaimed handouts from class from the box next to my office door in Buchanan Tower 412. See the list below for whether handouts were given out in a particular session.
| Download the PowerPoint presentations shown in class. Click on the desired session and download the zip file to your computer. You can then unzip it and print the material. Each slide is captured as a gif (graphics interchange format) or jpeg (photo) file. By marking all files in the folder (generated when unzipping), you can print the entire presentation. By changing the print options on your printer, you can print more than one slide per page (2-4 slides per page works fine in most cases). The slides are numbered throughout. When unzipped you will either see "Folie1", "Folie2", ... or "Slide1", "Slide2", ... This is the correct order. |
To be posted here after presentation in class.
Class 1, 8 Jan.: one handout (syllabus)
Class 2, 10 Jan: no handout
PowerPoint presentation. See instructions above on how to print the slides.
Class 3, 15 Jan: no handout
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 4, 17 Jan.: one handout (1/2 page map of AmE dialects, incl. two Canadian dialect zones)
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 5, 22 Jan.: no handout
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 6, 24 Jan.: no handout, video in class
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 7, 29 Jan.: no handout, video in class (c. 20 min.)
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 8, 31 Jan.: one handout (1 page with two vowel charts - CR and CS), video in class (c. 5 min.)
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 9, 5 Feb.: no handout
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 10: 7 Feb.: Midterm
Class 11: 12 Feb.: two handouts, one sheet (half a page) Information and Informed Consent Form; postal questionnaire (two sheets, double-sided, stapled)
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 12: 14 Feb: three handouts: 10 postal questionnaires (white), 4 field worker questionnaires (yellow) 3 (2 copies each) information and consent forms (green).
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 13: 26 Feb.: one handout (updated schedule for the rest of the term). Taking up the midterm exam
Class 14: 28 Feb.: Coding Excel E-Form for VanSur (class project 1, Vancouver Survey). Please download and submit ONE PER GROUP, containing all results from the questionnaires. More instructions in class and in the first three lines of the Excel template.
Download the 28 Feb. 2008 lecture as a (lo-fi) MP3 file here. I'm discussing Chambers' (2002) text on "Variation and Language Change" from the Handbook of Language Variaton and Change in this lecture, and it is the nucleus of almost everything we've been (and will be covering) in this class. If you get this lecture down, you can't be totally off. It's the basic principles that this lecture should drive home. However, you will still need to add in details of all other classes. Listen to the lecture, think it over, redistribute it. Why's that? If I were to compare this lecture to Chrisitian religious teaching, this lecture is equivalent to the "Ten Commandments" - i.e. the absolute baseline of what you need to know (well, and, ideally observe).
Download the lecture here (whatever you do with it, please include the copyright statement: Copyright by Stefan Dollinger, 28 Feb. 2008, Linguistics Programme, Department of English, UBC, Vancouver, Canada):
Stream (or download) 28 Feb. 2008 Lecture (MP3 file, overall size 17.3 MB for the entire 80 minute lecture)
Coding of the Mini VanSur: Dowload both the Coding form (blank) and the Sample form. The sample form will show you how to accommodate those odd instances that always occur. Sample Excel E-Form. (sample - with coding conventions): READ THIS DOCUMENT!!!! |
Class 15: Tue, 4 Mar. 2008: no handout
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 16: Thu, 6 Mar. 2008: no handout
PowerPoint presentation.
Class 17: Tue, 12 Mar. 2008: lab session - one handout (six pages, stapled) on Bank of CanE and citation extraction.
Class 18: Thu, 14 Mar. 2008: no handout
Class 19: Tue, 25 Mar. 2008: two handouts (format examples for Bank of CanE, review of Barber [2007])
Class 20: Thu, 27 Mar. 2008: no handout; quiz 2 returned and discussed ('taken up')
Note: We're working on both the marking of your Mini VanSur submission and the analysis of results. As you know, there is a wealth of data and it takes time to analyze it. Most time-consuiming it is, however, to check on your coding (for grading) and on the consistency of your surveys (i.e. 'real people factor', also for grading). I expect to have results in the last week of classes.
You will receive your Bank of CanE mark before the VanSur grade.
This class is an introduction to the study of geographical (dialectal) and social (sociolinguistic) variation in language, in which English will serve as our object of study. Lectures will introduce students to the major varieties of English throughout the world, which include, besides first language and second language varieties, also lingua franca varieties (English used as an international means of communication). Among the varieties of World English, North American and British English dialects will figure prominently in the course, with special emphasis given to Canadian varieties. While dialects can be characterized on all linguistic levels of description, pronunciation and vocabulary features will be given some prominence in this course.
Central to the theoretical backdrop of the course will be more recent approaches to the dialectal study of language which combine a more traditional approach to dialects, as defined exclusively geographically, with a social view of language (sociolinguistics). We will explore the models that have been proposed to tackle the inherent problem of variation in the description of actual language.
Students will get a chance to carry out their own, guided, mini projects. In small groups, students will engage in a mini usage survey on campus (Questions include: Do you say different than or different to last time ?), and establish the regional provenance of one Canadian English word by searching databases (Where is grow op used?). This practical element will give students a first-hand exposure to systematic data collection and analysis and will reveal the difference between anecdotal evidence (e.g. in the city of X, people say Y) and empirical study.
Texts (available at UBC Bookstore)
Both a textbook and a course reader are required in this course.
Textbook: Chambers, J. K. and Peter Trudgill. 1998. Dialectology . 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP.
Course reader: comprised of 14 text excerpts.