The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics

The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics

by ProfessorRuthWodak (Editor), Barbara Johnstone (Editor), Dr Paul E Kerswill (Editor)

Synopsis

A treasure trove for sociolinguistic researchers and students alike. Edited by three leading sociolinguists, the 39 chapters cover a wealth of valuable material... And the cast list reads like a veritable Who's Who of sociolinguistics, with a refreshing number of younger scholars included along with more familiar, well-established names... This is a book that I will reach for often, both for research and teaching purposes. I will recommend it to my postgraduate students, and many of the chapters will provide excellent material for discussion in our advanced undergraduate sociolinguistics course.
- Janet Holmes
, Discourse Studies

The best, the most complete and the most integrated handbook of sociolinguistics of the past decade.
- Joshua A. Fishman, NYU and Stanford University

This Handbook answers a long-standing need for an up-to-date, comprehensive, international, in-depth critical survey of the history, trajectory, data, results and key figures involved in sociolinguistics. It consists of six inter-linked sections:

  • The History of Sociolinguistics
  • Sociolinguistics and Social Theory
  • Language, Variation and Change
  • Interaction
  • Multilingualism and Contact
  • Applications

The result is a work of unprecedented coverage and insight. It is all here, from the foundational contributions to the field to the impact of new media, new technologies of communication, globalization, trans-border fluidities and agendas of research.

The book will quickly be recognized as a benchmark in the field. It will provide a basis for reckoning its origins and pathways of development as well as an authoritative account of the central debates and research issues of today.

$136.22

Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 648
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
Published: 23 Sep 2010

ISBN 10: 1847870953
ISBN 13: 9781847870957

Media Reviews
A superb volume that weaves together the complex threads of sociological theory, linguistic analysis and practical application that characterise this important and influential field. The contributions offer a range and depth of coverage that is not found elsewhere. Highly recommended for all serious students of the social dimensions of language
Ian Hutchby
Professor of Sociology, University of Leicester

The best, the most complete and the most integrated handbook of sociolinguistics of the past decade. It is a collection well worth having, returning to again and again and constantly keeping within easy reach for frequent reference on the part of students and faculty alike
Joshua A. Fishman
Emeritus Professor (Yeshiva University), NYU and Stanford University

Starting with the people, ideas and research that mark the genesis of sociolinguistics, this handbook takes us through its theoretical, methodological and empirical development over the last half century into the wide spectrum of work it now encompasses. It is a tough challenge to do justice to such breadth and depth in one publication, but the editors have succeeded in compiling an impressive, structured collection of chapters covering a well-chosen range of key topics in sociolinguistics, and expertly written by leading sociolinguists. This will be an important and rewarding book for all those studying the social aspects of language
Peter Garrett
Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University

This book is a treasure trove for sociolinguistic researchers and students alike. Edited by three leading sociolinguists, the 39 chapters cover a wealth of valuable material which includes accounts of the work of the founding figures of sociolinguistics, coverage of major theoretical approaches and sociolinguistic concepts, as well as consideration of some of the applications of sociolinguistics. And the cast list reads like a veritable Who's Who of sociolinguistics, with a refreshing number of younger scholars included along with more familiar, well-established names. The geographical spread is also good, with a number of sociolinguists from outside Europe and the USA, and sociolinguistic research which extends beyond the anglophone world...This is a book that I will reach for often, both for research and teaching purposes. I will recommend it to my postgraduate students, and many of the chapters will provide excellent material for discussion in our advanced undergraduate sociolinguistics course


Janet Holmes
Discourse Studies

The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics - edited by three well-known researchers in the field of sociolinguistics: Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone and Paul Kerswill - is a comprehensive volume on the state of sociolinguistic research today... The intended audience appears to be higher-level students and researchers. The style of most of the papers was accessible and did not require too much background knowledge. Many of the papers were excellent introductions to a particular facet of sociolinguistic research... Papers from the volume would... make good supplementary reading at an undergraduate level, and the volume should be considered essential reading for any graduate student embarking on sociolinguistic research.
Louise de Beuzeville
Journal of Discourse and Communication


The SAGE volume stands out from its competitors with a series of chapters that are organized around the work of influential foundational scholars, namely chapters on Ferguson and Fishman (written by Spolsky), Labov (Hazen), Bernstein (Ivinson), Hymes (Johnstone and Marcellino), and Gumperz (Gordon). In addition, two chapters from the section on Sociolinguistics and Social Theory also focus on the work of one particular scholar, namely `Symbolic interactionism, Erving Goffman and sociolinguistics' (Kendall) and `Ethnomethodology and Membership Categorization Analysis' (Garot and Berard), which focuses on the work and influence of Harold Garfinkel. To readers in the field, these biographical chapters are especially useful where they explore and explain the respective scholar's major contributions to sociolinguistic theory and place them in their historical and intellectual context. -- Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer
Author Bio
Ruth Wodak is Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University. Her research interests focus on discourse studies; identity politics; racism, antisemitism and other forms of discrimination; and on ethnographic methods of linguistic field work. She was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996 and an Honorary Doctorate from University of Orebro in Sweden in 2010. She has held visiting professorships in University of Uppsala, Stanford University, University Minnesota, University of East Anglia, and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). She is a member of the British Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the Academia Europaea. In 2008, she was awarded the Kerstin Hesselgren Chair of the Swedish Parliament (at University Orebro). Ruth is co-editor of the SAGE journal Discourse & Society, and of the journals Critical Discourse Studies and Journal of Language and Politics. Recent book publications include: The discourse of politics in action: 'Politics as Usual' (2011), Critical Discourse Analysis (4 volumes, 2013), Migration, Identity and Belonging (with G. Delanty and P. Jones, 2011), The Discursive Construction of History: Remembering the German Wehrmacht's War of Annihilation (with H. Heer, W. Manoschek, and A. Pollak, 2008), The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria (with M. Krzyzanowski, 2009), The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics (with B. Johnstone and P. Kerswill, 2010), Analyzing Fascist Discourse: Fascism in Talk and Text (with J. E. Richardson, 2013), and Rightwing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse (with M. KhosraviNik and B. Mral, 2013). Barbara Johnstone is on the faculty of the Rhetoric Program at Carnegie Mellon University, where she teaches courses in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, style, and research methods. She is currently Editor of the journal Language in Society, and I am working on a project about the enregisterment of dialect in Pittsburgh. Professor Johnstone is interested in the connections between discourse and place and in the role of the individual in language and linguistic theory. Barbara Johnstone's previous work has been in these areas: Discourse structure and function: forms and functions of narrative; women's and men's narrative; functions of repetition in discourse and their implications for linguistic theory; cross-cultural study of rhetorical discourse; current work on the individual voice in linguistic and rhetorical theory, on the rhetorical construction of place and local identity through discourse about local speech in Pittsburgh. Sociolinguistics: Regional/social variation in discourse structure and strategy; interactional sociolinguistics; ethnography of communication; gender and regional variation in discourse style; methodology in qualitative sociolinguistics; current work on urban North Midland English in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Editor, Language in Society,2005-present. Rhetoric, history and theory: Persuasive talk; cross-cultural study of persuasive styles in the U.S. and the Middle East. Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Sociolinguistics and is co-editor of two book series, Edinburgh Sociolinguistics (EUP) and Studies in Language Variation (Bengamins).