Week

Date

Topic

Reading

Assignment

1

M 9/13

Stages of Variationist Research

Walker Ch. 1

Note: See descriptions

of HWs in Quercus

W 9/15

1. Identify your variable and its variants

Walker Ch. 2,
Bayley 2013

2

M 9/20

2. Accessing the data

Nagy & Meyerhoff 2015

Survey "A little about you” &

HW 1: Syllabus report [both due 5pm Toronto time]

W 9/22

Transcribe & Code in ELAN

3

M 9/27

3. Identify constraints

Walker Ch. 3

HW 2: Quick report on sample design & token search / Tag2006:35-6,98 [due at start of class]

W 9/29

Coding linguistic factors

 D’Arcy 2013

 [code your data]

4

M 10/4

SOCIAL FACTOR FEST

Present one factor

W 10/6

Design your social factor schema

HW 3: schema for dep & indep. vars. for your project /Tag2006:15-16 [due at start of class; optional for grad students]

5

M 10/11

NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)

W 10/13

Abstract round robin

HW 4: Project (proto-) abstract [see abstract tips] [due at end of class]

6

M 10/18

4. Code and analyze

Groups vs. individuals

 Brezina & Meyerhoff 2014

[code your data]

W 10/20

Coding and MV/MEM in Rbrul

Tamminga 2011

[code your data]

7

M 10/25

Phon. variation

Walker Ch. 5;
Hay et al 2010 or Walker 2012

HW 5: Speaker distribution table(s) [due at start of class; optional for grad students]

W 10/27

FORMAL FEST I

Nagy 2013 or
King 2013

[code your data]

8

M 11/1

5. Results & Statistics

Distributional analysis

Walker Ch. 4

W 11/3

Run/discuss your analyses   

HW 6: Token file [due at end of class; optional for grad students]

M 11/8 & W 11/10

READING WEEK - NO CLASS

  Please (re-)read Walker Ch. 5 & 6 and think about directions for your paper.

9

M 11/15

More on stats

Gorman & Johnson 2013

[code your data]

W 11/17

Run/discuss your analyses

HW 7: Distrib. analysis / Tag2006:189-90, 215-6 [Due before class]

and HW 8: MV analysis – take 1 / Tag2006:157) [due at end of class]

10

M 11/22

Grammatical variation

Walker Ch. 6,

Owens et. al. 2013

Grad students – submit outline of presentation (earlier is ok! select from Formal Fest List)

W 11/24

6. Interpret your data

Walker Ch. 9

HW 9: (Revised) Abstract/Tag2006:35-6,98 [due before class]

11

M 11/29

Run your analyses;
consider formal theory implications; Discuss Language Change for projects

W 12/1

FORMAL FEST II &
More on language change

Walker Ch. 7

HW 10: Paper draft (describing your research project [due before class]

12

M 12/6

Run/discuss your analyses

W 12/8

Reports & Conclusions

Best findings [5-10 min each]

Re-analyze; write-up final paper about your project /Tag2006:262 [due before class]