Meyerhoff Miriam. Introducing Sociolinguistics

2nd edition. — Routledge, 2011. — 368 p. — ISBN 041555005X, 9780415550055, 0415550068, 9780415550062, 0203874196, 9780203874196.This second edition of Miriam Meyerhoff’s highly successful textbook is supported by the Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader and online resources common to both books. It provides a solid, up-to-date appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of the field covering foundation issues, recent advances and current debates. It presents familiar or classic data in new ways, and supplements the familiar with fresh examples from a wide range of languages and social settings. It clearly explains the patterns and systems that underlie language variation in use, as well as the ways in which alternations between different language varieties index personal style, social power and national identity.New features of the second edition:
a wider range of approaches to politeness theory incorporating an international range of research
expanded sections on multi-lingualism and code-switching, social class, dialect contact and tracking change over time
linkage to the new Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader which can be used alongside this textbook, allowing students to supplement and build on material covered in the textbook.
a shared website serving both Reader and Textbook which includes web- and video-links, interactive exercises and an expanded online glossary at: www.routledge.com
a refreshed text design to assist navigation through textbook and reader.
Each chapter includes exercises that enable readers to engage critically with the text, break-out boxes making connections between sociolinguistics and linguistic or social theory, and brief, lively add-ons guaranteed to make the book a memorable and enjoyable read. With a full glossary of terms and suggestions for further reading, this text gives students all the tools they need for an excellent command of sociolinguistics.What is sociolinguistics?
How do sociolinguists study sociolinguistics?
Making broader connections
Sociolinguistic questions
Structure of this book
On quantitative and qualitative methods
On sociolinguistic methods more generally
Using this book with The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader
Variation and language
Variables and variants
Regional dialectology: mapping speakers and places
Using regional dialect data to inform theory
Standards, norms and alternations from the norms
Martha’s Vineyard: a study of social dialects
Stereotypes, markers and indicators
Factors motivating variation
Chapter summary
Further reading
Variation and styleStudying variation in speakers’ style
The New York City social dialect survey
Prestige of a variable
In search of the unknowable: the observer’s paradox
Challenging style as attention to speech
Chapter summary
Further reading Language attitudesLanguage attitudes in language change
Linguistic relativism
Reclaiming derogatory terms
Perceptual dialectology
Attitudes to language: identities and accommodation
Social identity theory
Accommodation theory
Chapter summary
Further reading
Being polite as a variable in speechTheories of politeness
Applications of politeness theory: intercultural communication
Critiques of politeness theory
Chapter summary
Further reading
Multilingualism and language choiceLanguage policy and language planning in multilingual societies
Language rights in South Africa’s constitution
Language rights in Vanuatu’s constitution
Ethnolinguistic vitality
Using the model of language vitality
Diglossia in a community
Is ‘vitality’ the same as ‘prestige’?
Code switching and code mixing
Speech levels as different codes
Chapter summary
Further reading
Real time and apparent timeStudying change over time
Real time studies of change
Apparent time studies of change
Real time tests of the apparent time construct
Profiles of change
Challenges associated with real and apparent time sampling
Language and ageing
Chapter summary
Further reading
Social classSocial class
Class as a factor in linguistic variation
Fine and broad stratification
Cross-over effects and change from above/below
Class and historical sociolinguistics
The intersection of class and style
Chapter summary
Further reading
Social networks and communities of practiceSocial networks
Communities of practice: highly local networks
Case studies of social networks and language variation
Not all networks are equal
How occupation interacts with social networks
Who leads?
Chapter summary
Further reading
GenderSex or gender?
Exclusive gender differences
Preferential gender differences
Principles of gender and variation: a historical picture
Moving beyond Labov’s principles
Gender practices
Strategic use of gender differences
Gendered style
Gender and sexuality
Wider implications of rethinking gender
Chapter summary
Further reading
Language contact
How contact between varieties affects variation and change
Dialect levelling
Global contact: global English?
Contact-induced change
Sociolinguistic constraints on contact
Chapter summary
Further reading
Looking back and looking ahead
Variation is what we know
Theory in sociolinguistics
Interpreting and motivating variation
A final word: the triumph of multiple causation
Notes on the exercises