LINGUIST List 12.1999

Thu Aug 9 2001

Books: Sociolinguistics, Language Change

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Kimberly Kahn, Sociolinguistics: The Politics of Language by Carol L. Schmid
2. Kimberly Kahn, Language Change: Comparative Dravidian Linguistics by Krishnamurti

THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE: Conflict, Identity, and Cultural
Pluralism in Comparative Perspective
Carol L. Schmid, Guilford Technical Community College

Important aspects of the history of language in the United States
remain shrouded in myth and legend. The notion of "one nation, one
language" is part of the idealized history of the United States,
although in its short history it has probably been host to more
bilingual people than any other country in the world. Language is
more than a means of communication. It brings into play an entire
range of experiences and attitudes toward life. Furthermore, language
is a potent symbolic issue because it links power and political claims
of ownership with psychological demands for group worth. How people
belonging to different language and cultural communities live together
in the same political community and how political and structural
tensions arise to divide them along language lines, are questions
addressed in The Politics of Language. This book analyzes the
historical background and recent controversy over language in the
United States and compares it to two official multilingual societies:
Canada and Switzerland. It's accessibility as a survey of this topic
makes it ideal for courses in linguistics, political science, and
sociology.

May 2001 232 pp.; 10 line illus
0-19-513775-2 cloth $49.95
0-19-513776-0 paper $19.95
Oxford University Press
 
 
For more information about Linguistics titles from Oxford:
Visit the Oxford University Press USA web site at
http://www.oup-usa.org 

COMPARATIVE DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTICS: Current Perspectives
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, University of Hyderabad
Foreword by Murray B. Emeneau

This volume is a contribution both to comparative Dravidian studies
and to the theory of language change and lingusitic reconstruction.
It makes available the author's most important published articles on
Dravidian over the last forty years and includes a new and substantial
introduction to the field. The book concludes with a survey of
Dravidian language studies over the last thousand years and a critical
account of work since 1950. Those articles reprinted in the work
appear substantially unchanged, with individual comments.

April 2001 448 pp.; 31 line illus, 12 maps
0-19-824122-4 $95.00
Oxford University Press

For more information about Linguistics titles from Oxford:
Visit the Oxford University Press USA web site at
http://www.oup-usa.org