LIN 351 Week 9 HW: Creating an interview module

Our collective goal is to design a sociolinguistic interview module that will elicit lots of forms of one sociolinguistic variable, specifically (HAB), or habitual past tense verbs (e.g., "I used to go..., I would go..., I went... to school by pony." This is a function that has some variation in English and may be undergoing change. To find out, we'd need to elicit lots of naturalistic use of the habitual past. So let's work out how.

• What are some topics that you or your friends/family like to talk about that would use these kinds of verb forms?
• Once you've thought of about 5 such topics, pick 3 that you like best.
• For these 3, brainstorm some questions that lead into a good discussion.
• Refer to LABOV IV PROTOCOL [DSlx, pp. 47-49 or Labov 1984 (excerpt in the Week 9 folder in Quercus)]
• Each student will submit their suggestions for this assignment.
• In class on March 18, we will finalize the module as a group.
• Later, you will try out this module of questions, record a mini-interview, and transcribe it. [See Week 11 HW and Week 12 HW]

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Updated March 17, 2025