Language and Politics in East Europe and Russia

Catalog description

In this seminar course we explore how closely language and politics are intertwined. We explore topics including language policy (e.g., nation-building, linguistic purism and standardization, language maintenance and preservation), minority languages, relevance of inflectional grammar to discourse, metaphor, code-switching and diglossia, language contact, (im)politeness, and language origin-myths and their significance to the conceptualization of the politics of language. Case-studies on languages in East Europe, Russia are used as entry-points to classroom discussions. Knowledge of Slavic languages is not required. Open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. First- and second-year students who demonstrate their knowledge of the basic notions in linguistics or their familiarity with Russia and East Europe may enroll with the instructor’s written permission. Enrollment limited to 20.