Short Essay Questions

Answer each prompt below with a precise answer of no less than one page and no more than two pages. All answers must be typed with a #12 font, double-spaced, and contain one inch margins. Each question is worth 20 points, and the total number of points for the essays is 30% of the final grade. You will be graded on your accuracy, clarity, and detail. The short essays are due on particular dates and must be turned in on those dates without exception.

Question 1: Study in Varying Speech

As speakers of a language, we vary our speech depending upon whom we are speaking to. Try this simple experiment. Find a person that you are close to--spouse, child, or significant other--and in your next conversation speak in complete and grammatical sentences. You should observe a reaction of some sort in a short period of time. Keep up this behavior for a little while.
After you finish, tell your subject what you were doing and ask him/her to explain the reaction that he/she had.
Write up the results of your study and include the following:

• How long did you speak the way that you did?
• Describe the setting you were in when you did the study ( for example, at the dinner table).
  
• What was your subject's reaction?
  
• What explanation did your subject give for his/her reaction?
  
• Is your subject's explanation adequate?
• Why do you think that your subject reacted the way he/she did?
  
• What have you learned about the way that you normally speak to people that you are close to?

Question 2: Standard and Non-standard Dialects

Address each of the statements and questions below about standard and non-standard dialects.

• Define standard dialect.
• Define non-standard dialects.
• Provide a few examples of how any non-standard dialect of American English differs grammatically from Standard American English.
• How are the two types of dialects evaluated by society?
• In general what social characteristics distinguish the speakers of the two types of dialects?

To answer this question effectively, review Chapter 2 in the textbook.

The due date is October 11

Question 3: Networks

Reread the section on networks in your textbook (pp. 126-127). Now list the six people with whom you communicate most frequently. Designate yourself "A" and draw lines from A to the other six people. Now draw lines between those of the six who communicate frequently with each other.

Are you a member of a dense or loose network?
Are you involved in a simplex or multiplex network?
Briefly describe your network.

The due date is October 23.

Question 4: Language Variation

What are some of the independent variables used by sociolinguistics? Explain why the same independent variables are not of equal importance in all societies.

What are some of the consistebt patterns of variation that have been found? For example, what is the relationship between the prestige variant of a variable and socio-economic class?

To answer this question effectively, review Chapters 6 and 7 in the textbook.

The due date is November 01.

Question 5: Explaining Language Differences Based on Gender

This prompt has three sections:

• What are some of the grammatical differences between the language of men and women that have been revealed in linguistic research?
• In your own words briefly describe two of the possible explanations for these grammatical differences.
• In your opinion, is one of them more plausible than the other? Why?

The due date is November 15.

English 420 Course Syllabus.