The study of how language varies in social context, and how it can be analyzed and accounted for, are the key goals of sociolinguistics. Until now, however, the actual tools and …
What motivates some linguistic minorities to maintain their language? Why do others shift away from it rather quickly? Are there specific conditions - environmental or personal - …
During the last fifteen years, existing models of linguistic politeness have generated a huge amount of empirical research. Using a wide range of data from real-life speech …
Style refers to ways of speaking - how speakers use the resource of language variation to make meaning in social encounters. This 2007 book develops a coherent theoretical approach …
The spread of English around the world has been and continues to be both rapid and unpredictable. World Englishes: The Study of New Linguistic Varieties deals with this inescapable …
Sociophonetics focuses on the relationship between phonetic or phonological form on the one hand, and social and regional factors on the other, working across fields as diverse as …
How does writing relate to speech? What impact does it have on social organisation and development? How do unwritten languages differ from those that have a written form and …
Looking for an easy-to-use, practical guide to conducting fieldwork in sociolinguistics? This invaluable textbook will give you the skills and knowledge required for carrying out …
Introducing new findings from popular culture, the globalised new economy and computer-mediated communication, this is a fascinating study of contact between languages in modern …
'Language attrition' describes the loss of, or changes to, grammatical and other features of a language as a result of declining use by speakers who have changed their linguistic …
