The new edition of the most complete and student-friendly introduction to the field of sociolinguistics, fully revised and updated
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Eighth Edition, is a broad overview of the study of language in social context, providing accessible coverage of major concepts, theories, methods, issues, and debates within the field. This leading textbook helps students develop a critical perspective on language in society as they explore the complex connections between societal norms and language use. Organized in four sections, the text covers traditional language issues, broad approaches to research in sociolinguistics, and language in relation to gender and sexuality, education, and policy. The eighth edition contains new and updated discussion of topics including the societal aspects of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), multilingual societies and discourse, gender and sexuality, ideologies and language attitudes, and the social meanings of linguistic forms. Fully updated throughout, this important textbook:
- Provides perspectives on both new and foundational research in sociolinguistics
- Features examples from a variety of languages and cultures that illustrate topics such as social and regional dialects, multilingualism, and language in education
- Includes end-of-chapter written exercises, key topic lists, chapter summaries, and “Explorations” designed to promote classroom discussion
- Offers students further reading suggestions, research ideas, and an updated companion website containing a searchable glossary, a review guide, additional exercises and examples, and links to online resources
- Includes a guide to the all explorations and exercises in the textbook, discussion topics, and other teaching resources via an instructor’s website
Encouraging students to approach sociolinguistics both empirically and as a way of viewing the world around them, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Eighth Edition, remains the ideal textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in sociolinguistics, language and society, anthropological linguistics, applied and theoretical linguistics, and education.
1 Introduction
Key Concepts
The Nature of Language
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Knowledge of Language
Competence and Performance
Variation: expand this to include more information about variables from chapter 6 7e
Speakers and Their Groups
Language and Culture
Directions of Influence
The Whorfian Hypothesis: recent discussion in linguistics: McWhorter book and reviews
Correlations
The interdisciplinary legacy of Sociolinguistics: brief synopsis of the intellectual traditions informing the study of language in society
Identities (brief intro)
Ideologies (brief intro: iconicity, recursiveness, erasure)
Overview of the Book
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
Part I Languages, Communities, and Context
2 Languages, Dialects, and Varieties
Key Concepts
Language or Dialect?
Mutual Intelligibility
The Role of Social Identity
Standardization
The Standard as an Abstraction
The Standardization Process
The Standard and Language Change
Standard English?
The Standard-Dialect Hierarchy
Regional Dialects
Dialect Continua
Dialect Geography
Everyone Has an Accent
Social Dialects
Kiezdeutsch ‘Neighborhood German
Ethnic Dialects
African American Vernacular English
Features of AAVE
Development of AAVE
Indexicality, Intertextuality, Enregisterment, Entextualization: instead of focusing on the static concepts of style and register, this section will be revised to include more recent work in sociolinguistics about how particular forms are used to create social meaning; use example of memes
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
3 Defining Groups
Key Concepts
Speech Communities
Linguistic Boundaries
Shared Norms
Communities of Practice
Social Networks: expanded to include information from chapter 6, 7e
Social Identities (tactics of subjectivity)
Beliefs about Language and Social Groups
Ideologies
Language Attitudes: an introduction to this will be incorporated here, to be followed up in chapter 5
Perceptual Dialectology
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
4 Language in Context: Pragmatics
Key Concepts
Speech Acts
Performatives
Locutions, Illocutionary Acts, and Perlocutions
Implicature
Maxims
The Concept of Cooperation
Politeness
Face
Positive and Negative Politeness
Politeness World-Wide
Politeness and Indirectness
Pronouns
Tu and Vous: Power and Solidarity
Pronouns and Positioning
Naming and Titles
Fluidity and Change in Address Terms
Chinese Comrades
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
Part II: Theory and Methods
5 Language Variation and Change
Key concepts
The Linguistic Variable
Variants
Types of Linguistic Variables
Indicators, Markers and Stereotypes
Data Collection and Analysis in Variation Research
The Observer’s Paradox
The Sociolinguistic Interview
Sampling
Apparent Time and Real Time
Correlations: Dependent and Independent Variables
Regional Variation
Mapping Dialects
Methods in Dialectology
Dialect Mixture and Free Variation
Second Dialect Acquisition
Social Variation
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Social Class Membership
The First Wave of Variation Studies
The fourth floor
Early work on gender
The Second Wave of Variation Studies
Social networks
Gender
Jocks and burnout
The Third Wave of Variation Studies
Stance
Language Variation and Change
Some Changes in Progress
The Northern Cities Shift
Change Across Space: Urban Centers and Physical Barriers
Change Over Time Or Age-Grading?
Martha’s Vineyard
Gender and Language Change
Language Change and the Linguistic Marketplace
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
6 Ethnographic Approaches to Sociolinguistics
Key Concepts
Ethnography of Communication
Communicative Competence
SPEAKING
Ethnography and Beyond
Ethnomethodology
Background Knowledge as Part of Communication
Commonsense Knowledge and Practical Reasoning
Garfinkel and His Students: Studies in Ethnomethodology
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
Linguistic Ethnography
Digital Ethnographies: Research in Online Communities
The role of Ethnography in Variationist Research
7 Discourse Analysis
Key Concepts
Conversation Analysis
Adjacency Pairs
Openings
Closings
Turn-Taking
Repair
Institutional Talk
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Data and Methodologies
Contextualization
Stance
Intercultural Communication
Corpus Linguistics
Databases
Methods
Findings
Critical Discourse Analysis
Contrasts and Critiques
Methodologies and Connections
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
Part III: Multilingual Matters
8 Languages in Contact: Multilingual Societies and Multilingual Discourse
Key Concepts
Multilingualism as a Societal Phenomenon
Competencies and Convergence in Multilingual Societies
Language Ideologies Surrounding Multilingualism
Linguistic Landscapes – expanded to reflect the wealth of research on this topic in the last few years
Language Attitudes in Multilingual Settings
Diglossia
Domains
The Statuses of the H and L Languages
Extended Diglossia and Language Maintenance
Questioning Diglossia
Multilingual Discourse
A brief history of concepts and models; from Metaphors to Markedness
Multilingual Identities: Hybridity, Metrolingualism, Transnationalism and Appropriation
Variationist Research on Language Contact
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
9 Contact Languages: Structural Consequences of Social Factors
Key Concepts
Lingua Francas
Pidgin and Creole Languages: Definitions
Connections between P/C Languages and Second Language Acquisition
Pidgin and Creole Formation
Theories of Creole Genesis
Geographical Distribution
Linguistic Characteristics of P/C Languages
Phonology
Morphosyntax
Vocabulary
From Pidgin to Creole and Beyond
Creole Continuum?
Other Contact Varieties: Mixed Languages
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
10 Language and Nation and Beyond
Language and nation
National languages (links to language policy)
Language and national identities
Learning to be a citizen: language and naturalization
Colonialization and Post-Colonialism
Language and Immigration (links to chapter 5)
Language and integration
Transnationalism
Diversity and Superdiversity
Chronotopes
Globalization (links to section on English World Wide in chapter 13)
Glocalization
Language and the Digital World
Part IV: Sociolinguistics and Social Justice
11 Language, Gender and Sexuality
Key Concepts
Defining Terms: Gender, Sex Category, and Sexuality
Sexist Language
Grammatical Gender Marking
Language Change
Discourses of Gender and Sexuality
Some Common Discourses
Deficit, Dominance, Difference and Identities
Women’s Language
Dominance
Difference
Gender and Sexuality Identities
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
12 Sociolinguistics and Education
Key Concepts
Social Dialects and Education
Restricted and Elaborated Codes
Difference Not Deficit
Role of the Home Dialect in Education
African American Vernacular English and Education
Applied Sociolinguistics
Multilingual Education
Ideologies
Use of Minority Languages in the Classroom
Elite and Immigrant Bilingualism
Education and World Wide English
Circles of English
Elite Closure
English in Europe
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
13 Language Policy and Planning
Key Concepts
Terminology, Concepts, and Development of the Field
Types of Language Planning
The Intellectual History of LPP
Data and Methods
LPP and Nationalization
LPP in Turkey: Orthography and Purity
LPP in the Soviet Union and the Post-Soviet Era: From Russification to Nationalization
Official Monolingualism in France
Multilingual Policy in Belgium
LPP in Post- and Neo-Colonial Contexts
Kenya
India
LPP in the United States and Canada
The United States of America
Canada
Multilingual Countries and LPP
Papua New Guinea
Singapore
Endangered Languages and the Spread of English
Endangered Languages
English World-Wide
Chapter Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
References
Glossary
Index
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