"I'm sitting here in Newfoundland, in Canada, writing a book about sociolinguistics, and you're out there somewhere, starting to read it. If you were here and could hear me talk -- especially if you were Canadian, especially if you had some training -- you could tell a lot about me. When I speak English, most people can tell I'm North American (I pronounce schedule with a [sk] sound), Canadian (I rhyme shone with gone, not bone), and probably from Quebec (I keep my socks in a bureau). And if I was wherever you are, I could probably tell a lot about your speech community and where you fit into it. The fact that we can do this is one of the things that interest sociolinguists..." It's rare to encounter a textbook that one will want to read cover to cover. But Gerard van Herk has written exactly that, introducing students to the field of sociolinguistics as the best teachers do: with excitement, humor, and deep knowledge. 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. The chapters contains useful and clear features including: Numerous innovative exercises and Spotlighted research, where the author introduces some key concepts discussed in foundational research and offers suggestions for reading the primary literature Further readings, glossary terms, chapter summaries, and text boxes that explore introduced concepts in greater depth for interested students The companion website offers PowerPoint slides for instructors and sample answers to questions, while providing students with further resources, including sound files and carefully curated links for further study.

Making Waves tells the human story of an academic field based on one-to-one interviews with 43 of the most famous scholars in Variationist Sociolinguistics. Explanations of concepts, ideas, good practice and sage advice come directly from the progenitors of the discipline. An authentic, inside story about the origins of Sociolinguistics as Language Variation and Change, recording the context and spirit of sociolinguistics Gives students access to the views on language variation of major sociolinguists such as Bill Labov and Peter Trudgill Offers a human story of an academic field, and is written in the style of a novel, offering complete accessibility with minimal in-group terminology Provides a timely audio archive of the reminiscences of the major Sociolinguists, including Labov, Fasold, Milroy, Trudgill, and Wolfram, with a companion website featuring 400 audio clips from the interviews. Visit the site at www.wiley.com/go/tagliamonte/makingwaves

This comprehensive new edition of Wardhaugh’s textbook incorporates additional study features and numerous new and updated references to bring the book completely up-to-date, whilst maintaining the features that made the book so popular with lecturers and students: accessible coverage of a wide range of issues, clearly written, and with useful student study features. A fully revised new edition of Ronald Wardhaugh’s popular introduction to sociolinguistics, which now includes over 150 new and updated references and new study features throughout Features new “Explorations” sections in each chapter incorporating suggested readings, discussion sections, and exercises – all designed to encourage students to develop their own skills and ideas Reflects new developments in the field, providing greater focus on ideas such as identity, solidarity, and markedness Provides balanced coverage of a range of topics, including: language dialects, pidgins and Creoles, codes, bilingualism, speech communities, variation, words and culture, ethnographies, solidarity and politeness, talk and action, gender, disadvantage, and planning Comprehensive and accessible, it is the ideal introduction for students coming to sociolinguistics for the first time

New edition of widely-acclaimed textbook, including new sections on up-to-date topics for the 1990s.

The most comprehensive overview available, this Handbook is an essential guide to sociolinguistics today. Reflecting the breadth of research in the field, it surveys a range of topics and approaches in the study of language variation and use in society. As well as linguistic perspectives, the handbook includes insights from anthropology, social psychology, the study of discourse and power, conversation analysis, theories of style and styling, language contact and applied sociolinguistics. Language practices seem to have reached new levels since the communications revolution of the late twentieth century. At the same time face-to-face communication is still the main force of language identity, even if social and peer networks of the traditional face-to-face nature are facing stiff competition of the Facebook-to-Facebook sort. The most authoritative guide to the state of the field, this handbook shows that sociolinguistics provides us with the best tools for understanding our unfolding evolution as social beings.

This work presents a critical synthesis of sociolinguistics, centring on the study of language variation and change. It opens with a discussion of the linguistic variable and its historical methodology and theoretical significance

New edition of widely-acclaimed textbook, including new sections on up-to-date topics for the 1990s.