What Is Sociolinguistics?

by Van Herk, Gerard

• ISBN13: 9781405193191
• ISBN10: 1405193190
• Format: Hardcover
• 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 at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has researched and written on varieties of the English language and is the editor of Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications (eds. with C. Mallinson and B. Childs, 2013).

Table of Contents

Contents vii

List of Boxes xi

Research in the Spotlight xiv

Companion Website xvi

Acknowledgments xvii

1. Introduction 1

2. Language and Society 10

3. Place 25

4. Social Status 47

5. Time 60

6. Ethnicity 75

7. Gender and Identity 85

8. Style 104

9. Interaction 116

10. Multilingualism 127

11. Language Contact 136

12. Attitudes and Ideologies 148

13. Language as a Social Entity 161

14. Education 175

15. What is Sociolinguistics? 188

Glossary 197

Bibliography 213

Index 229