In this survey of the study of language and society, we look at how language is actually used, how people feel about it-- how the two are often opposed -- and how the structure of language interacts with both. We consider language as a resource to convey cultural and personal identity, and what it reveals of language attitudes and social structure -- and therefore of status and inequality in areas such as social class, gender, age, and ethnicity. We see how social identity illuminates variation in language, and learn about such topics as regional and social dialects, language rights, and language variation and change.
- Module Supervisor: Amanda Cole