Past Events
A-Level Sociology of Language Workshop
- Venue: St Catherine's College, Armagh
- Start: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 10:30:00 BST
- End: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:30:00 BST
All you ever wanted to know about the sociology of language, but were afraid to ask ...
This workshop explores issues related to the sociology of language. We will begin by thinking about why sociologists might view language as an important topic for study in the first place. For instance, what can language tell us about individuals, ‘communities’ and society at large? We will look at a number of famous sociolinguistic studies, including research on language and ethnicity by William Labov and language and class by Basil Bernstein. The implications faced by language loss will be introduced through the work of Joshua Fishman and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas.
In the second part of the session, we examine the kinds of interview techniques that are used in sociolinguistic research and discuss further aspects of the relationship between language and social factors such as ethnicity, class and gender. In doing so, we will focus in particular on research that has been conducted in communities in Northern Ireland itself, including James and Lesley Milroy's work in Belfast and the studies by Kevin McCafferty in Derry and Karen Corrigan in South Armagh.
Speakers: Karen Corrigan (Newcastle University), Philip McDermott (University of Ulster), Adam Mearns (Newcastle University).