Sociolinguistics

Entry requirements

For full entry requirement details, please see the course page on the University website.

Months of entry

Anytime

Course content

The nexus between people and language is where most sociolinguistic research takes place, and at the University of Liverpool, research in sociolinguistics focuses in particular on the relationship between society and language, drawing on expertise from Modern Languages.

With specialists exploring sociolinguistic issues in the Francophone, Hispanophone, Lusophone and Italophone world, as well as in North Africa and the Middle East, Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool is ideally positioned to provide a range of national and transnational perspectives on research into language and society.

Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool is home to a critical mass of researchers examining the Linguistic Landscape, including a wide range of questions around language in the public space. The Department of Modern Languages & Cultures boasts two members of the Editorial Board of the journal Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal, including the editor. In addition to testing out methodological approaches to language in the public space, researchers in Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool consider the linguistic landscapes of France and Italy, with particular emphasis on regional and minority languages. This work has also been extended into the Middle East with recent projects undertaken in Jordan, Algeria and Kuwait.

In addition, researchers in Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool explore the themes of migration studies and minority languages as part of the rapidly burgeoning field of new speakers. Set against a context of language policy, language ideologies, and linguistic legitimacy, colleagues have tackled issues around linguistic capital.

Members of the research group are currently leading an AHRC-funded Research Network on Multilingual Memorialisation, working in collaboration with colleagues in Algeria, Cape Verde and Eritrea to explore the extent to which monuments and historical memory is presented multilingually in the public space.
They hosted the launch of the new Linguistics Section of the journal Modern Languages Open, with contributions from the section’s editorial board. The Linguistics Section is edited by Nicola Bermingham (University of Liverpool), and is supported by an Editorial Board which consists of Michelle Harrison (University of Leicester), Kerstin Hoge (University of Oxford), Adam Ledgeway (University of Cambridge) and Leigh Oakes (Queen Mary University of London).