What Is Sociolinguistics?

by Van Herk, Gerard

• ISBN13: 9781405193184
• ISBN10: 1405193182
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-27
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

What is Sociolinguistics? is a tour through the major issues that define the field, such as region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, while also exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education, all introduced with excitement, humor, and deep knowledge. "  Explores the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education "  Provides useful and clear learning features including numerous innovative  exercises and project ideas, spotlighted research readings, glossary terms, chapter summaries, and text boxes "  Features a companion website offering PowerPoint slides for instructors and sample answers to questions, as well as links for further study, www.wiley.com/go/vanherk  

Author Biography

Gerard Van Herk is a Canada Research Chair in Regional Language and Oral Text and Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has researched and written on varieties of the English language and is one of the editors of Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications (with C. Mallinson and B. Childs, 2013).

Table of Contents

List of Boxes	p. xi
Research in the Spotlight	p. xiv
Companion Website	p. xvi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Types of sociolinguistics	p. 2
Background: The history of sociolinguistics	p. 3
Summing up	p. 6
Exercises	p. 7
Discussion	p. 8
Other resources	p. 8
Language and Society	p. 10
Defining "language" in sociolinguistics	p. 11
Sociolinguists vs. other linguists	p. 11
Sociolinguists vs. normal people	p. 12
Language vs. dialect	p. 13
What is "society"?	p. 15
Summing up	p. 21
Exercises	p. 21
Discussion	p. 23
Other resources	p. 23
Place	p. 25
How regional differences develop	p. 25
English, for example	p. 26
English worldwide: Linguistic features	p. 30
Isolation	p. 33
Physical isolation: The case of Newfoundland English	p. 33
Linguistic isolation: The case of Quebec French	p. 35
Social isolation: The case of African Nova Scotian English	p. 36
The social meaning of space	p. 37
Summing up	p. 42
Exercises	p. 43
Discussion	p. 45
Other resources	p. 45
Social Status	p. 47
Determining social class or status	p. 48
Mobility	p. 51
Summing up	p. 56
Exercises	p. 58
Discussion	p. 58
Other resources	p. 59
Time	p. 60
Apparent time	p. 60
Change	p. 61
Real time studies of language change	p. 63
The S-shaped curve of language change	p. 67
Subtle sound change: Vowel shifts	p. 68
Age: Change across the lifespan	p. 69
Acquiring sociolinguistic competence	p. 70
Summing up	p. 71
Exercises	p. 73
Discussion	p. 74
Other resources	p. 74
Ethnicity	p. 75
Ethnic language varieties	p. 75
Ethnic naming and depictions	p. 78
Crossing: Using the language of others	p. 80
Summing up	p. 81
Exercises	p. 83
Discussion	p. 83
Other resources	p. 84
Gender and Identify	p. 85
Gender and interaction	p. 86
Difference and dominance	p. 89
Hon languages encode gender	p. 90
Gender and language change	p. 93
Class	p. 95
Identity, performance, and practice	p. 96
Language and sexuality (or something)	p. 98
Summing up	p. 100
Exercises	p. 101
Discussion	p. 102
Other resources	p. 103
Style	p. 104
Defining and measuring style	p. 105
Genre, register, jargon	p. 110
Using other peopleÆs stuff	p. 111
Summing up	p. 112
Exercises	p. 113
Discussion	p. 114
Other resources	p. 115
Interaction	p. 116
Ethnography of communication	p. 117
Face	p. 120
Solidarity and power	p. 121
Summing up	p. 124
Exercises	p. 125
Discussion	p. 126
Other resources	p. 126
Multilingualism	p. 127
Multilingual societies	p. 128
Diglossia	p. 128
Code-switching	p. 130
Slimming up	p. 132
Exercises	p. 134
Discussion	p. 134
Other resources	p. 135
Language Contact	p. 136
Code-switching and borrowing	p. 136
Contact languages: Mixed languages, lingua franca, pidgins, Creoles	p. 139
Summing up	p. 143
Exercises	p. 145
Discussion	p. 146
Other resources	p. 146
Attitudes and Ideologies	p. 148
Investigating language attitudes	p. 149
Language beliefs (myths, ideologies)	p. 153
Reading and responding	p. 156
Summing up	p. 159
Exercises	p. 159
Discussion	p. 160
Other resources	p. 160
Language as a Social Entity	p. 161
Language maintenance, shift, revitalization	p. 162
Language policy and planning	p. 167
Summing up	p. 172
Exercises	p. 173
Discussion	p. 174
Other resources	p. 174
Education	p. 175
The school as a sociolinguistic community	p. 176
What students bring to school	p. 177
Languages of education	p. 179
What students take from school	p. 182
Learning a language at school	p. 183
Summing up	p. 183
Exercises	p. 185
Discussion	p. 185
Special extra discussion questions for students in education programs or faculties	p. 186
Other resources	p. 186
What is Sociolinguistics?	p. 188
The sociolinguistics of African American English	p. 189
Language/society/community	p. 189
Place	p. 190
Social status	p. 190
Time	p. 191
Culture and ethnicity	p. 191
Gender and identity	p. 192
Style and code shifting	p. 192
Interaction	p. 193
Language contact and Creoles	p. 193
Attitudes and ideologies	p. 193
Language planning and education	p. 194
Summing up (the book, not just the chapter)	p. 194
Exercises	p. 195
Discussion	p. 195
Other resources	p. 196
Glossary	p. 197
Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 229
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