This engagingly written textbook provides a unique 'hands-on' introduction to sociolinguistics, which equips readers with the tools to start their own sociolinguistic research project. The book begins by outlining the historical, theoretical and cultural space in which language use occurs, before delving into the key topics and concepts of today's field. It examines the choices speakers make in everyday life and assesses language and status across the world, by investigating variation in cultural norms. Sociolinguistic variables such as age and gender are surveyed, along with the socio-cultural context of second language acquisition. The second half of the book equips readers with the skills needed to undertake sociolinguistic research of their own.
This is an ideal introductory text for students taking courses in sociolinguistics, language and society, language in use or language variation.
Author(s): Dick Smakman
Publisher: Red Globe Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 307
Cover
Contents
Introduction
PART 1 INTRODUCING SOCIOLINGUISTICS
1 Early Sociolinguistics
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Separate disciplines
1.3 Early sociolinguistic activity
1.4 Merging disciplines
1.5 Conclusion
2 Sociolinguistics Today
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Sociolinguistics
2.3 Today’s Sociolinguistics
2.4 The purpose of Sociolinguistics
2.5 Conclusion
3 Language Variation
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ways to refer to language use systems
3.3 Dialect
3.4 New languages
3.5 Disappearing languages
3.6 Codeswitching
3.7 Conclusion
4 The Language of Culture
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Anglo-Western bias
4.3 Cultural patterns in the world
4.4 Modern trends
4.5 Conclusion
PART 2 UNDERSTANDING SOCIOLINGUISTICS
5 Speaker Agency
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Who we are
5.3 How we view ourselves
5.4 How we view others
5.5 Who we associate with
5.6 Conclusion
6 What is Good Language?
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Language
6.3 The language norm
6.4 Conclusion
7 Language and Status across the Globe
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Status
7.3 Language and status
7.4 Status and language variation across the globe
7.5 Conclusion
8 The People’s Language
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Lay versus expert approaches to language
8.3 Beliefs about language variation
8.4 Perceptual dialectology
8.5 Criticism
8.6 Conclusion
9 What Say You?
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Attitudes and beliefs
9.3 Language attitude research
9.4 The origins of language attitudes
9.5 Conclusion
10 The Language of a Lifetime
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Developing one’s language
10.3 Four types of ages
10.4 Age and language norms
10.5 Research into age and language
10.6 Conclusion
11 The Language of Women and Men
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Distinguishing between two sexes
11.3 Linguistic differences
11.4 Research into gender
11.5 Explanations for difference
11.6 Non-heterosexual speech patterns
11.7 Research waves
11.8 Conclusion
12 Second Language Sociolinguistics
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The second language learner
12.3 Sociolinguistic aspects of second language acquisition
12.4 Challenging the native norm
12.5 Conclusion
PART 3 PROCESSING SOCIOLINGUISTICS
13 Ready, Set, Research!
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Step 1: Scan
13.3 Step 2: Checking with experts
13.4 Step 3: Organise the research topic
13.5 Step 4: Write up research questions
13.6 Step 5: Decide on a specific methodology
13.7 Conclusion
14 Write about Research
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Chapter 1: Introduction
14.3 Chapter 2: Method
14.4 Chapter 3: Results
14.5 Chapter 4: Conclusion
14.6 After finishing the writing
14.7 Conclusion
15 Crunching Numbers
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Qualitative versus quantitative research
15.3 SPSS
15.4 Terminology
15.5 Descriptive statistics
15.6 Inferential statistics
15.7 Conclusion
16 The Sounds of Language
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Aspects of speech
16.3 Determining the quality of vowels and consonants
16.4 Conclusion
PART 4 DOING SOCIOLINGUISTICS
17 Language out There
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Corpus Analysis
17.3 Linguistic Geography
17.4 Time Study
17.5 Historical Sociolinguistics
17.6 Researching Linguistic Landscapes
18 Speak to Me
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Intergenerational Proficiency Description
18.3 The Sociolinguistic Interview
18.4 Conversation Analysis
18.5 Discourse Analysis
18.6 Rapid Anonymous Survey
19 While You Were Speaking
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Ethnographic Fieldwork
19.3 Computer-Mediated Communication
19.4 Street Use Survey
19.5 Classroom Observation
20 Don’t Get Me Started
20.1 Introduction
20.2 Language Evaluation Test
20.3 Matched Guise Test
20.4 Identification Task
20.5 Questionnaire
20.6 Interview
20.7 Folk Linguistics
References
Glossary
Index
