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Introducing sociolinguistics (2nd rev. edition)

Rajend Mesthrie, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap
Edinburgh : Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2009

ISBN: 9780748638444

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Book description
Sociolinguistics is one of the central branches of modern linguistics and deals with the place of language in human societies. This second edition of Introducing Sociolinguistics expertly synthesises the main approaches to the subject. The book covers areas such as multilingualism, code-choice, language variation, dialectology, interactional studies, gender, language contact, language and inequality, and language and power. At the same time it provides an integrated perspective on these themes by examining sociological theories of human interaction. In this regard power and inequality are particularly significant. The book also contains two chapters on the applications of sociolinguistics (in education and in language policy and planning) and a concluding chapter on the sociolinguistics of sign language. New topics covered include speaking style and stylisation, while current debates in areas like creolisation, globalisation and language death, language planning, and gender are reflected.
Written collaboratively by teachers and scholars with first hand experience of sociolinguistic developments on four continents, this book provides the broadest introduction currently available to the central topics in sociolinguistics.

About the author
Rajend Mesthrie is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cape Town.
Joan Swann is Senior Lecturer, Centre for Language and Communication, Open University.
Ana Deumert is Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Cape Town and formerly Director of the Language and Society Centre at Monash University.
William L. Leap is Professor of Anthropology, American University, Washington DC.

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