This course explores the Chinese language as it functions within diverse social and political contexts. The course examines specific socio-linguistic phenomena such as: dialects and regionalects, language policy and language reform, the politicization of language, language and gender, the evolution of Modern Standard Chinese and its relationship to other Chinese languages, phoneticization of Chinese characters, social motivation and language change, grammar and social meaning.

Assignment work and a final examination. Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but may expect more rigorous assessment and additional assignment work, tailored to the graduate students’ interests.

32 contact hours per Semester

Permission of Coordinator

Ramsey, S Robert, The Languages of China, Princeton, 1995
Chen Ping, Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics (Cambridge University Press, 1999)