LINGUIST List 9.818

Tue Jun 2 1998

Books: Socioling & Anthropological Ling

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Erin Igoe, New Books in Sociolinguistics & Anthropological Linguistics

Sociolinguistics & Anthropological Linguistics

THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS READER
Volume 1: Multilingualism and Variation
Edited by Peter Trudgill, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Jenny
Cheshire, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
(Arnold Linguistics Readers)
(An Arnold Publication)

This two-volume text presents a state-of-the-art account of the discipline
in the closing years of the twentieth century. The books chart the
liveliest areas in contemporary sociolinguistics: variation, multilingualism,
gender, and discourse and include helpful introductions and other aids to
the student and specialist.

Volume 1 explores the macro-social aspects of sociolinguistics,
covering cross-cultural communication problems, the linguistic behavior
of bilingual speakers, language contact, the social psychology of
language, variation, and the mystery of linguistic change.

May 1998 296 pp.; 37 linecuts
0-340-65206-3 paper $19.95
0-340-65207-1 cloth $75.00
Oxford University Press
 

THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS READER
Volume 2: Gender and Discourse
Edited by Jenny Cheshire, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University
of London, and Peter Trudgill, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
(Arnold Linguistics Readers)
(An Arnold Publication)

Volume 2 of this two-volume text looks first at patterns of language
variation, how gender identities are accomplished through language, and
the importance of gender in accounting for language behavior. It goes on
to examine sociolinguistic issues surrounding discourse, with reference
to the communication of affective meaning, conversational routines,
grammaticalization and language change, intertextuality, and
cross-cultural discourse patterns and their social implications.

May 1998 416 pp.; 23 linecuts
0-340-69999-X paper $19.95
0-340-69182-4 cloth $85.00
Oxford University Press
 

CLAIMING POWER IN DOCTOR-PATIENT TALK
Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn, Michigan State University
(Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics)

Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn studied stories, topic control, "true" questions,
and rhetorical questions in 101 medical encounters in US private-practice
settings. In exceptionally lucid and accessible style, Ainsworth-Vaughn
explains how power was claimed by and co-constructed for both
patients and doctors (previous studies have focused upon doctors'
power). The discourse varied along a continuum from interview-like talk
to conversational talk. Six chapters are organized around data and
include extended examples of actual talk in detailed transcription; four of
these data-oriented chapters focus upon dynamic, moment-to-moment
use of speech activities in emerging discourse, such as doctors' and
patients' stories that co-constructed selves, and a patient's sexual
rhetorical questions. Two more chapters offer non-statistical quantitative
data on the frequency of questioning and sudden topic changes in
relation to gender, diagnosis, and other factors. Contributing to discourse
theory, Ainsworth-Vaughn significantly modifies previous definitions for
topic transitions and rhetorical questions and discovers the role of
storytelling in diagnosis. The final chapter provides implications for
physicians and medical educators.

June 1998 224 pp.; 3 halftones
0-19-509607-X paper $19.95
0-19-509606-1 cloth $45.00
Oxford University Press
 

LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES: Practice and Theory
Edited by Bambi B. Schieffelin, New York University, Kathryn A. Woolard,
University of California, San Diego, and Paul V. Kroskrity, University of
California, Los Angeles
(Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 16)

"Language ideologies" are cultural representations, whether explicit or
implicit, of the intersection of language and human beings in a social
world. Mediating between social structures and forms of talk, such
ideologies are not only about language. Rather, they link language to
identity, power, aesthetics, morality and epistemology. Through such
linkages, language ideologies underpin not only linguistic form and use,
but also significant social institutions and fundamental notions of person
and community. The essays in this new book examine definitions and
conceptions of language in a wide range of societies around the world.
Contributors focus on how such defining activity organizes language
use as well as institutions such as religious ritual, gender relations, the
nation-state, schooling, and law. This timely volume will be the first
collection of work to appear in this rapidly growing field, which
effectively bridges linguistic and social theory.

May 1998 352 pp.; 4 linecuts
0-19-510562-1 paper $35.00
0-19-510561-3 cloth $75.00
Oxford University Press
 

ORAL TRADITIONS OF ANUTA: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon
Islands
Richard Feinberg, Kent State University
(Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 15)
Anuta is a small Polynesian community in the eastern Solomon Islands
that has had minimal contact with outside cultural forces. Even at the end
of the twentieth century, it remains one of the most traditional and
isolated islands in the insular Pacific. In Oral Traditions of Anuta, Richard
Feinberg offers a telling collection of Anutan historical narratives,
including indigenous texts and English translations. This rich, thorough
assemblage is the result of a collaborative project between Feinberg and
a large cross-section of the Anutan community that developed over a
period of twenty-five years.
The volume's emphasis is ethnographic, consisting of a number of texts
as related by the island's most respected experts in matters of traditional
history. Feinberg's annotations, which arm the reader with essential
ethnographic and historical contexts, clarify important linguistic and
cultural issues that arise from the stories. The texts themselves have
important implications for the relationship of oral tradition to history and
symbolic structures, and afford new evidence pertinent to Polynesian
language sub-grouping. Further, they provide insight into a number of
Anutan customs and preoccupations, while also suggesting certain
widespread Polynesian practices dating back to the pre-contact and
early contact periods.

May 1998 304 pp.; 5 linecuts
0-19-510683-0 $85.00
Oxford University Press
 

LANGUAGE OBSOLESCENCE AND REVITALIZATION: Linguistic Change
in Two Sociolinguistically Contrasting Welsh Communities
Mari C. Jones, University of Cambridge
(Oxford Studies in Language Contact)

Mari C. Jones's book is the first to examine developments in
contemporary Welsh with reference to both language death and
standardization. She bases her study on extensive fieldwork in two
sociolinguistically contrasting communities She also examines agents of
revitalization, such as immersion schools and the media, and the effect
they are having on Welsh. She explores and discusses the position of
Breton and Cornish by way of comparison.

June 1998 464 pp.; 110 maps and linecuts
0-19-823711-1 $135.00
Oxford University Press
 
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For more information about Linguistics titles from Oxford University
Press: 
Visit the Oxford University Press USA web site at
http://www.oup-usa.org or 
e-mail: linguisticsoup-usa.org
 

The following contributing LINGUIST publishers have made their backlists available on the World Wide Web:

1998 Contributors