1st Edition
The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader
Both a companion to Introducing Sociolinguistics, Miriam Meyerhoff’s bestselling textbook, and a stand-alone Reader in sociolinguistics, this collection includes classic foundational readings and more recent innovative articles.
Intended to be highly user-friendly, The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader includes substantial section introductions, further reading, a reader’s guide on how to use the book and an introductory chapter providing advice on how to undertake qualitative and quantitative research. This introduction is supplemented by exercises focussing on data handling and collection.
The Reader is divided into six sections and each section is thematically organised. Each reading is accessible to beginning students of sociolinguistics but the entire selection is assembled to also help advanced students focus on themes, principles and concepts that cut across different researchers' work. Beginning and advanced students are supported by Content Questions to assist understanding of essential features in the readings, and Concept Questions which help advanced students make connections across readings, apply theory to data, and critically engage with the readings. A companion website supports and connects the Reader and textbook with structured exercises, links to associated websites and video examples, plus an online glossary.
The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader is essential reading for students on courses in sociolinguistics, language and society, and language and variation.
Authors: Allan Bell, Jennifer Hay, Stefanie Jannedy, Norma Mendoza-Denton, Qing Zhang, John Laver, Sachiko Ide, Dennis R. Preston, Thomas Purnell, William Idsardi, John Baugh, Gibson Ferguson, Isabelle Buchstaller, Jinny K. Choi, Don Kulick, Christopher Stroud, Jan-Peter Blom, John J. Gumperz, David Britain, Monica Heller, Ben Rampton, Miriam Meyerhoff, Nancy Niedzielski, William Labov, Rika Ito, Sali Tagliamonte, Gillian Sankoff, Hélène Blondeau, Peter Trudgill, Richard Cameron, Lesley Milroy, James Milroy, Paul Kerswill, Ann Williams, Terttu Nevalainen, Penelope Eckert, Janet Holmes, Stephanie Schnurr, Niloofar Haeri, Elinor Ochs, Scott Fabius Kiesling, Rusty Barrett
Go to www.routledge.com/textbooks/meyerhoff for online resources supporting The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader and Introducing Sociolinguistics (Meyerhoff 2011)
List of figures
List of tables
User’s guide to The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader
Acknowledgements
Introduction
- Erik Schleef and Miriam Meyerhoff
- Allan Bell
- Jennifer Hay, Stefanie Jannedy, and Norma Mendoza-Denton
- Qing Zhang
- John Laver
- Sachiko Ide
- Dennis R. Preston
- Dennis R. Preston
- Thomas Purnell, William Idsardi, and John Baugh
- Gibson Ferguson
- Isabelle Buchstaller
- Jinny K. Choi
- Don Kulick and Christopher Stroud
- Jan-Peter Blom and John J. Gumperz
- David Britain
- Monica Heller
- Ben Rampton
- Miriam Meyerhoff and Nancy Niedzielski
- William Labov
- Rika Ito and Sali Tagliamonte
- Gillian Sankoff and Hélène Blondeau
- Peter Trudgill
- Richard Cameron
- Lesley Milroy and James Milroy
- Paul Kerswill and Ann Williams
- Terttu Nevalainen
- Penelope Eckert
- Janet Holmes and Stephanie Schnurr
- Niloofar Haeri
- Elinor Ochs
- Scott Fabius Kiesling
- Rusty Barrett
Sociolinguistic methods for data collection and interpretation
Part one: Identities, style and politeness
Editors’ introduction to part one
Back in style: Reworking audience design
Oprah and /ay/: Lexical frequency, referee design, and style
A Chinese yuppie in Beijing: Phonological variation and the construction of a new professional identity
Linguistic routines and politeness in greeting and parting
Formal forms and discernment: Two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness
Part two: Perceptions and language attitudes
Editors’ introduction to part two
Language with an attitude
The Li’l Abner syndrome: Written representations of speech
Perceptual and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification
Language education policy and the medium of instruction issue in post-colonial Africa
Social stereotypes, personality traits and regional perceptions displaced: Attitudes towards the ‘new’ quotative in the U.K.
Part three: Multilingualism and language contact
Editors’ introduction to part three
Bilingualism in Paraguay: Forty years after Rubin’s study
Code-switching in Gapun: Social and linguistic aspects of language use in a language shifting community
Social meaning in linguistic structure: Code-switching in Norway
Dialect contact, focusing and phonological rule complexity: The koineisation of Fenland English
Legitimate language in a multilingual school
Language crossing and the redefinition of reality
The Globalisation of Vernacular Variation
Part four: Variation and change
Editors’ introduction to part four
The social motivation of a sound change
Well weird, right dodgy, very strange, really cool: Layering and recycling in English intensifiers
Language change across the lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French
Norwich revisited: Recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect
Aging and Gendering
Part five: Social class, networks and communities of practice
Editors’ introduction to part five
Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model
Mobility versus social class in dialect levelling: Evidence from new and old towns in England
Making the best of ‘bad’ data: Evidence for sociolinguistic variation in early modern English
Vowels and nail polish: The emergence of linguistic style in the preadolescent heterosexual marketplace
‘Doing femininity’ at work: More than just relational practice
Part six: Gender
Editors’ introduction to part six
A linguistic innovation of women in Cairo
Indexing gender
Power and the language of men
Markedness and styleswitching in performances by African American drag queens
Notes on concept questions
Index
Biography
Miriam Meyerhoff is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her work investigates language variation and the interplay between language and social identities, using qualitative and quantitative methods. She is author of Introducing Sociolinguistics, and co-editor of the Handbook of Language and Gender, as well as Social Lives in Language and the Creole Language Library.
Erik Schleef is Lecturer in English Sociolinguistics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include language variation and change, language and gender and language acquisition in immigrant contexts. He has lived and taught in the US, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland.
"An outstanding resource for students and scholars of sociolinguistics at all levels. The introductory chapter on methods provides a great entrance into the field and the reader covers a generally excellent range of core readings in sociolinguistics. In addition the editors have integrated those readings with helpful exercises and discussion questions that will benefit students and instructors alike."
Robin Queen, University of Michigan, USA
"The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader stands out with its focus on practice. Students will love the hands-on nature of this Reader!"
Ingrid Piller, Macquarie University, Australia
"A very useful collection, due to the care in selection both in terms of quality and the wide range of approaches. I especially like the focus on multilingualism (more than a third of the articles report on languages other than English, for anyone keeping score), both in the choice of topics and in the attention given to the interests and needs of multilingual students."
Naomi Nagy, University of Toronto, Canada
"This is the kind of interactive, varied course material that both students and teachers dream about."
- Dr. Catharina Peersman, Department of Linguistics, K.U. Leuven, Belgium
'... offers a true introductory manual of sociolinguistic studies to students and teachers alike... this is the kind of interactive, varied course material that both students and teachers dream about. There is no doubt about the excellent qualities of 'The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader'. When combined with Meyerhoff's 'Introducing Sociolinguistics' and the online resources, this versatile manual is a very practical resource that would help create a varied and enjoyable sociolinguistics course.' - LinguistList