Oxford Introductions to Language Study

A series of brief, clear introductions to the main areas of language study.

Sociolinguistics

Bernard Spolsky

Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which various groups of people use language. This book provides a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the field. It explores how sociolinguistics is linked to other disciplines such as history, politics and gender studies.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which various groups of people use language. This book provides a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the field. It explores how sociolinguistics is linked to other disciplines such as history, politics and gender studies.

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Part of... Oxford Introductions to Language Study

Cover

A series of brief, clear introductions to the main areas of language study.

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Tab 1

Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which various groups of people use language. This book provides a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the field. It explores how sociolinguistics is linked to other disciplines such as history, politics and gender studies.

Tab 2

Preface

SECTION 1

Survey
The scope of enquiry
Complementary approaches
The methods of enquiry
What are the data?
The sociolinguist at work
The approach in this book
The ethnography of speaking
The structure of conversations
Politeness and politeness formulas
Terms of address
Speech communities and repertoires
Dialect
Styles
Specialized varieties or registers and domains
Slang and solidarity
Language and gender
Social stratification
Accommodation and audience design
Language socialization
The description of bilingualism
Bilingual competence
Code switching and code mixing
Multilingualism
Language loyalty and reversing language shift
Language and ethnic identity
Language and politics
Language rights
Pidgins and creoles
Diglossia
Language policy and language planning
Status planning
Corpus planning
Normativism and prescriptivism
Language acquisition planning or language education policy
Language diffusion policy or linguistic imperialism
The spread of English - imperialism or hegemony?
Conclusions

SECTION 2

Readings

SECTION 3

References

SECTION 4

Glossary

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