Contents
Preface to Fourth Edition
Preface to Third Edition
Preface to Second Edition
Preface to First Edition
Author's Acknowledgements
Publisher's Acknowledgements
1. What do sociolinguists study?
What is a sociolinguist?
Why do we say the same thing in different ways?
What are the different ways we say things?
Social factors, dimensions and explanations
Section I: Multilingual Speech Communities
2. Language choice in multilingual communities
Choosing your variety or code
Diglossia
Code-switching or code-mixing
3. Language maintenance and shift
Language shift in different communities
Language death and language loss
Factors contributing to language shift
How can a minority language be maintained?
Language revival
4. Linguistic varieties and multilingual nations
Vernacular languages
Standard languages
Lingua francas
Pidgins and creoles
5. National languages and language planning
National and official languages
Planning for a national official language
Developing a standard variety in Norway
The linguist's role in language planning
Section II: Language Variation: Focus on Users
6. Regional and social dialects
Regional variation
Social variation
Social dialects
7. Gender and age
Gender-exclusive speech differences: non-Western communities
Gender-preferential speech features: social dialect research
Gender and social class
Explanations of women's linguistic behaviour
Age-graded features of speech
Age and social dialect data
Age grading and language change
8. Ethnicity and social networks
Ethnicity
Social networks
9. Language change
Variation and change
How do changes spread?
How do we study language change?
Reasons for language change
Section III: Language Variation: Focus on Uses
10. Style, context and register
Addressee as an influence on style
Accommodation theory
Context, style and class
Style in non-Western societies
Register
11. Speech functions, politeness and cross-cultural communication
The functions of speech
Politeness and address forms
Linguistic politeness in different cultures
12. Gender, politeness and stereotypes
Women's language and confidence
Interaction
Gossip
The linguistic construction of gender
The linguistic construction of sexuality
Sexist language
13. Language, cognition and culture
Language and perception
Whorf
Linguistic categories and culture
Discourse patterns and culture
Language, social class, and cognition
14. Analysing Discourse
Pragmatics and politeness theory
Ethnography of speaking
Interactional sociolinguistics
Conversation Analysis (CA)
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
15. Attitudes and applications
Attitudes to language
Sociolinguistics and education
Sociolinguistics and forensic linguistics
16. Conclusion
Sociolinguistic competence
Dimensions of sociolinguistic analysis
Sociolinguistic universals
References
Appendix: phonetic symbols
Glossary
Index
