Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Humanities and Social Sciences

ENG124: Language and Society

Semester: 2019-20-I

Instructor: Achla M. Raina; Tutor: Achla M. Raina

July 29, 2019

First Course Handout

Course Objective:

The course investigates the relationship between language, cognition and culture. The objective
of the course is to sensitize students to the sociocultural dimension of language and language use.

Topics to be covered in the available 40 lectures:

1. Introductory: What is language for? What do Linguists do? What does it mean to
know a language? [3 Lectures]
2. Field of study: Different perspectives on the study of language, language structure,
context of use, cognitive underpinnings of language, language history [3 Lectures]
3. Problems of definition: language as a geo-political construct, individuating a
language, script as a language demarcator[4 Lectures]
4. Language variation: social and linguistic stratification, ethnic, caste, age and gender
varieties in language, language variation and historical change, emergence of new
languages, salvaging dying languages [4 lectures]
5. Multilingual communities: dominance and conflict, shift and attrition, language and
the state, Indian multilingualism, multilingualism in the European Union, Eurasia
and Africa [6 lectures]
6. Language and identity: language choice and linguistic identities, registers, group
slang, sign language and other intra-group communicative behaviours, linguistic
prejudice and inequality, standardization, language disadvantage in education,
oralism and other modes of standardization among atypical populations [5 lectures]
7. Language, culture and cognition: cross-linguistic semantic choices, translatability
across cultures, linguistic relativity [5 lectures]
8. Language and social control: language and power, gendered language, post truth
social order [5 lectures]
9. Methodological issues: positivist, ethnographic and interventionist approaches to the
study of language in use [5 lectures]
 

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Selected Readings from the following list:

1. R.K. Agnihotri, 2013. The stories they tell about language.

2. Emily Anthes. 1016. The glossary of happiness.
3. Carmen Brandt, 2014: Script as a potential demarcator and stabilizer of languages in South Asia
4. Nora Caplain-Bricker. 2016. Should dictionaries do more to confront sexism?
5. LeraBoroditsky, 2005: Linguistic relativity
6. Guy Deutscher, 2010: The language glass: Why the world looks different in other languages.
7. Joshua Foer, 2012: Utopian for beginners
8. RamchandraGuha, 2005: Hindi against India
9. RamachandraGuha, 2008: Redrawing the map
10. Nathan Heller, 2016. An epic takedown on elite brospeak
11. PratapBhanu Mehta. 2006. The babble of Babel.
12. PratapBhanuMehta. 2014. Teaching in tongues
13. VivekMenezes. 2017. Konkani - a language in crisis
14. Cecelia Orde and Tjeerd de Graaf. Language endangerment and revitalisation
15. Steven Pinker, 1994: The language instinct
16. K. Rajagopalan, 2001: Politics of language
17. Tariq Rehman, 2011: Urdu in India
18. David R. Tarpy. The bee dance

Soft copies of the reading material will be provided wherever available, otherwise placed in A-
ONE Photocopy Centre for easy access.

Schedule:MWThF: 8:00-8:50am (Tut. on W)

Office Hours: M: 5:00-6:00pm in FB324

Evaluation Components:

Mid Semester Exam : 20%

End Semester Examination (Mandatory) : 40%

Reading Assignments : 20%

Take-Home assignment : 10%

Class Participation : 10%

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Course Policies:

 Be in class at 8:00am sharp. Late comers will not be allowed in.

 Be regular. Attendance will be randomly monitored.

 Be attentive while in class. Requests for class notes will not to be entertained except
when the topic is descriptive.

 Feel free to seek clarifications when a point appears unclear.

 Raise questions and counter questions: this will be your contribution to the course.

 Submit assignments on time.

 Use of available resources without due acknowledgement, and other kinds of unfair
practices including cheating in exams are seriously discouraged.

 If you have an interesting thought, share it with the entire class and not just your
neighbour.

 Leave the class if you are sleepy. Do not wait to be asked to leave.

Howto reach me:

Office: 324, Faculty Building

Phone: (0512 259) 7894

Email: achla@iitk.ac.in

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