GER234   Germanic Languages in Social Context   (20 credits)

Description

This module introduces key issues in the field of sociolinguistics and focuses on the interface between language and society in what are commonly referred to as `German-speaking countries¿, including officially monolingual (Germany, Austria) and multilingual (Switzerland, Luxembourg) countries. It allows students to gain insights into how language works and how social actors evaluate aspects of language use, covers a wide range of textual and visual representations as well as debates that relate specifically to Germanic languages, and shows how the negotiation of linguistic boundaries is bound up with that of social boundaries.

Reading List