General aspects

A balance will be struck between practical analysis and description of dialectal and sociolectal material, on the one hand, and the linguistic and methodological foundations of systematic dialect description, on the other.

On the descriptive side, the content of the class will be oriented towards published material, mainly by Labov, Trudgill and Wells. The more theoretical content of the class will include:

1. Historical approaches, comparative dialectology and historical reconstruction.
2. Structural approaches: dialects as synchronic systems to be contrasted.
3. Generative approaches: dialects as systems which are derivable by rule from other systems.
4. Sociological approaches: dialects in their interrelations with sociolects and social prerequisites for language change.

All participants will be expected to play an active role in the class in terms of preparing reports on the literature, analyses of taped material for discussion in class, minutes of class discussion, and the like.