The course aims to educate students in theoretical and practical aspects of sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, and in autonomously conducting their own segmental research. Moreover, the students will learn the fundamentals of critical reading concerning sociolinguistic and sociophonetics works.

In particular, the students will be able to learn:

-  the historical roots of variationist sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, their categories of analysis and their theories of language change;

-  how to do research in the Italian linguistic context, by framing dialects in the speakers’ repertoires and dealing with the complexities of performing sociolinguistic analyses in a bilingual setting;

-  basic principles of acoustic analysis of Italian data, adopting both theoretical (critical reading of sociolinguistic and sociophonetics works) and practical (PRAAT software tutorial) perspectives;

-  basic principles of experimental design – which can be helpful in dealing with both sociolinguistic and other humanities research scenarios – and interpretation of data analysis;

-  the main standards of scientific communication in sociolinguistics and sociophonetics.

The course will be structured into two main sections: 1) an introductory section about the disciplinary roots of variationist sociolinguistics, its recent developments, and its main analytical categories; and 2) a core section about sociophonetics, with both lectures and laboratory sessions (to be agreed upon according to the students’ needs), aiming to teach how to read scientific literature and envision a protocol for experimental research.

In particular, the course will deal with the following topics:

1a) Variationist sociolinguistics: a brief history from Labov’s research in Martha’s Vineyard to the third wave.

1b) The Labovian interview and the different conceptualizations of “style”.

1c) The social variables: sex and gender; social and biological age (between apparent time and age grading); social class; ethnic orientation and “place” according to sociolinguistics;

1d) Social meaning and indexicality.

2a) Sociolinguistics and sociophonetics: similarities and differences.

2b) Exemplar theory and the role of frequency in variation and change.

2c) The Italian dialects and bilingualism in sociophonetics.

2d) An introduction to acoustic phonetics aiming to learn how to read a spectrogram.

2e) The Italian phonological inventory: acoustic description and examples of variation.

2Lab1) An introduction to principles of experimental design.

2Lab2) Data analysis interpretation.

2Lab3) Basic features of the PRAAT software for acoustic analysis.

knowledge and understanding: Students will acquire sufficient knowledge to read and understand scientific literature in sociolinguistics and sociophonetics. Given the interdisciplinarity of these fields, students will acquire basic knowledge of linguistics, sociology, acoustic phonetics, and experimental design. Moreover, students will learn the historical and disciplinary processes which have shaped contemporary sociolinguistics and sociophonetics and how to interpret their development trends.

applying knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to critically read the scientific literature in sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, and begin to envision their own experimental protocols. Specifically, when dealing with a novel research scenario, they will be able to pinpoint the main social variables of interest, the acoustic features to analyze, and the experimental design to verify their hypotheses.

making judgements: When reading experimental research works, students will know where to search for information about social variables, acoustic features and data analysis. Moreover, they will develop a critical eye on the methods used in experimental work and be able to advance research hypotheses following the standards of the field.

communication skills: Students will learn the basics of the writing style of sociolinguistic works, including standards of experimental protocol and data analysis presentation (e.g., APA); by doing so, they will be able to scientifically write about their own research.

learning skills: Students will acquire a set of transversal skills which will help them in their educational path. Specifically, they will be able to interpret contemporary identity dynamics involving speech variation. Moreover, they will be ready to learn new analytical skills to be applied to research fields other than linguistics, and to pursue further studies in acoustical analysis.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

There are no supporting activities.

Teaching

Lectures and laboratory activities. Critical readings of the scientific literature will be provided during the course lessons.

Innovative teaching methods

Learning by doing (laboratory activities)

Attendance

In order to be considered “attending”, students will have to partake to at least 50% of the total number of lectures, and to at least 75% of the laboratory sessions.

The course requires students to have previous basic knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Please find the references to a textbook apt to the review of this specific topic in the “Course books” section below (Mioni, 2001).

Course books

The course program is the same for attending and non-attending students. In order to help non-attending students learn the contents of the lectures, a careful reading of the materials indicated in Blended Learning is highly recommended: these will allow students to reach a level of understanding of the course contents sufficient for its requirements.

In addition to the course slides uploaded on Blended Learning, students will have to compulsorily read:

- Calamai, S. (2015). Introduzione alla sociofonetica. Roma: Carocci.

- Albano Leoni, F., Maturi, F. (2018). Manuale di fonetica. Terza edizione. Roma: Carocci. [Excluding Chapter 4 - Fonetica uditiva e percettiva]

- Piccardi, D. (2021). Rural Sociophonetics. Dialectology meets usage-based theory in the village of Antona (Massa, Italy). Alessandria: Dell’Orso. [Chapter 2 and 3 only]

Please find below a list of references divided by topic on most of the course themes. These can be read for personal interest and are not compulsory:

[Review of the International Phonetic Alphabet]

- Mioni, A. M. (2001). Elementi di fonetica. Padova: Unipress.

[Variationist Sociolinguistics]

- Chambers, J. K., Shilling, N. (Eds., 2013). The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Second Edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[Research Methods in Sociolinguistics]

- Drager, K. (2018). Experimental Research Methods in Sociolinguistics. London/New York: Bloomsbury.

[Speech Segmentation]

- Machač, P., Skarnitz, R. (2009). Principles of Phonetic Segmentation. Prague: Epocha.

[PRAAT Software]

- Styler, W. (2023). Using Praat for Linguistic Research. Ver. 1.9.2. [Available online in Blended Learning]

Assessment

Oral exam.

The oral exam will consist of three questions. Two questions will test the students’ knowledge about the course themes and the contents of the compulsory readings. The third one will test the students’ ability to deal with a novel (fictitious) research scenario of sociolinguistic interest. Students will be given a set of essential coordinates concerning a variation phenomenon, a population subset and a socio-geographical setting to be inquired. Given this information, students will have to think aloud about pertinent research objectives, methods of phonetic analysis, and experimental designs. In order to pass the exam, students will have to provide a concise correct answer to two out of tree questions. Higher scores will be awarded to students providing more elaborate answers. Note that, in order to achieve full marks, students will have to provide elaborate answers to all three questions; in particular, with respect to the scenario question, they will have to address all the aspects of the simulation (i.e., the social features of the population subset, the research setting, the phonetic analysis, and the experimental design).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Individual study.

Attendance

In order to be considered “attending”, students will have to partake to at least 50% of the total number of lectures, and to at least 75% of the laboratory sessions.

The course requires students to have previous basic knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Please find the references to a textbook apt to the review of this specific topic in the “Course books” section below (Mioni, 2001).

Course books

The course program is the same for attending and non-attending students. In order to help non-attending students learn the contents of the lectures, a careful reading of the materials indicated in Blended Learning is highly recommended: these will allow students to reach a level of understanding of the course contents sufficient for its requirements.

In addition to the course slides uploaded on Blended Learning, students will have to compulsorily read:

- Calamai, S. (2015). Introduzione alla sociofonetica. Roma: Carocci.

- Albano Leoni, F., Maturi, F. (2018). Manuale di fonetica. Terza edizione. Roma: Carocci. [Excluding Chapter 4 - Fonetica uditiva e percettiva]

- Piccardi, D. (2021). Rural Sociophonetics. Dialectology meets usage-based theory in the village of Antona (Massa, Italy). Alessandria: Dell’Orso. [Chapter 2 and 3 only]

Please find below a list of references divided by topic on most of the course themes. These can be read for personal interest and are not compulsory:

[Review of the International Phonetic Alphabet]

- Mioni, A. M. (2001). Elementi di fonetica. Padova: Unipress.

[Variationist Sociolinguistics]

- Chambers, J. K., Shilling, N. (Eds., 2013). The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Second Edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[Research Methods in Sociolinguistics]

- Drager, K. (2018). Experimental Research Methods in Sociolinguistics. London/New York: Bloomsbury.

[Speech Segmentation]

- Machač, P., Skarnitz, R. (2009). Principles of Phonetic Segmentation. Prague: Epocha.

[PRAAT Software]

- Styler, W. (2023). Using Praat for Linguistic Research. Ver. 1.9.2. [Available online in Blended Learning]

Assessment

Oral exam.

The oral exam will consist of three questions. Two questions will test the students’ knowledge about the course themes and the contents of the compulsory readings. The third one will test the students’ ability to deal with a novel (fictitious) research scenario of sociolinguistic interest. Students will be given a set of essential coordinates concerning a variation phenomenon, a population subset and a socio-geographical setting to be inquired. Given this information, students will have to think aloud about pertinent research objectives, methods of phonetic analysis, and experimental designs. In order to pass the exam, students will have to provide a concise correct answer to two out of tree questions. Higher scores will be awarded to students providing more elaborate answers. Note that, in order to achieve full marks, students will have to provide elaborate answers to all three questions; in particular, with respect to the scenario question, they will have to address all the aspects of the simulation (i.e., the social features of the population subset, the research setting, the phonetic analysis, and the experimental design).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.