Language and Information Sciences

Language can be regarded not only as a reflection of society and culture but also as itself constitutive of much of the character of social and cultural life. In line with this view, sociolinguistics is the field of study devoted to investigating the relationship between language, society and culture. It deals with language variation according to region, gender, and age, and analyses various kinds of interaction focusing on both verbal and non-verbal human behaviour. In particular, "language contact" and its linguistic outcomes constitute a major line of enquiry in this field. Geographical and social mobility, as well as political and cultural upheavals, are not only instrumental in the creation of bilingualism or multilingualism at a macro-level, but also lead to lexical, syntactical, phonological, and morphological changes in languages in contact at a micro-level. The field also includes language policy research, which deals with the status, norm, education and acquisition of a particular language in a particular institutional context.

Faculty

Language, region, sex and age:

ITATSU Yuko, KAWASAKI Yoshifumi, MATSUMOTO Kazuko,
TANAKA Shin'ichi, HIRAYAMA Manami, YOSHIKAWA Masayuki

Communication and language:

USAMI Yo, HAYASHI Katsuhiko, MOTOBAYASHI Kyoko,
WATANABE jun-ya

Language contact and change:

ITATSU Yuko, IWATSUKI Jun'ichi, KAWASAKI Yoshifumi,
MATSUMOTO Kazuko, MIURA Ayumi, TANAKA Shin'ichi

Societal and individual multilingualism:

IWATSUKI Jun'ichi, MATSUMOTO Kazuko, MOTOBAYASHI Kyoko,
USAMI Yo, YOSHIKAWA Masayuki

Language Policy or Politics of Language:

MOTOBAYASHI Kyoko