Sociolinguistics, Language and Society (Language and Development series) Book

The study of languages with a bias towards the written form, Sociolinguistics, Language, and Society serves as a corrective by highlighting speech variations, dialects, signs, and by generally exploring the relationship between language and society in a wide sociolinguistics framework. The eleven original papers present empirical research from various countries including Malta, Germany, the Channel Islands, the United States, and Britain. The topics discussed cover a wide and exciting range such as the importance of the phenomenological approach in sociolinguistics; the study of the 18th century Welsh gravestones as a way of rediscovering forgotten dialect features; the use of different forms of address in Malta to establish relationships; the role of fingerspelling in British Sign Language; and the retention of mother tongue among immigrant groups. This collection enlarges the context of traditional sociolinguistic research and presents linguists with a variety of challenges by raising issues which are relevant to an understanding of the constant interaction between language and society. Sociolinguistics, Language, and Society will be of interest to practitioners and students of sociolinguistics, linguistic theory, cultural studies, and communication studies.Read More