In the module Language and Society, we’ll be exploring the relationship between language use and different social factors. We all think that this relationship is straight forward, for example, we would happily claim that working class speakers would use language differently from upper class speakers but we will see in the module that when we consider real language data, the situation is more complicated.
What we need to realise is that in academic writing for university level, we cannot make claims about language use and its users without using evidence – this evidence comes in the form of research and we will be relying on this research to investigate language use amongst different social groups.
To get you started in using evidence to support claims about language use, there are two readings for you here, both around the topic of language use by rappers. Please read both articles carefully and make a note about what you consider to be evidence.
Article 2: Standard Language in Urban Rap