LINGUIST List 12.487

Thu Feb 22 2001

Books: Socioling (Modified Issue #12.440)

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

Directory

1. Kimberly Kahn, Socioling: Modified Issue #12.440, Language in Society by Romaine

	
LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Second Edition
Suzanne Romaine, Oxford University
	
Why have 1500 separate languages developed in the Pacific region? Why
do Danes understand Norwegians better than Norwegians understand
Danish? Is Ebonics a language or a dialect?
	
Linguistics tends to ignore the relationship between languages and the
societies in which they are spoken, while sociology generally
overlooks the role of language in the constitution of society. In
this book Suzanne Romaine provides a clear, lively, and accessible
introduction to the field of sociolinguistics and emphasizes the
constant interaction between society and language. She shows how our
linguistic choices are motivated by social factors, and how certain
ways of speaking come to be vested with symbolic value, drawing from
evidence from studies of cultures and languages all over the world.
	
This new edition incorporates new material on current issues in the
study of gender as well as other topics such as the linguistic
dimension to the ethnic conflict in the Balkans, and the controversy
over Ebonics in the United States.
	
	 
Contents:
	
Language in Society/Society in Language
Language Choice
Sociolinguistics Patterns
Language and Gender
Language Change in Social Perspective
Pidgin and Creole Languages
Linguistic Problems as Societal Problems 
Conclusions
References
Index 
	
	
January 2001 280 pp.; 27 line illus
0-19-873192-2 paper $14.95
Oxford University Press
	 
	
	
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kimberly Kahn
Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New
York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 726-6086 Fax: (212) 726-6442 E-mail:
krkoup-usa.org