Introducing Sociolinguistics (review)

The authors, three of whom are from South Africa, prepared this textbook for readers with little or no prior experience in linguistics and therefore have kept technical terms to a minimum.

In Chapter 1, the authors situate sociolinguistics within the overall discipline of linguistics and then give a brief account of the development of the field, contrasting the linguist’s focus on competence (structures that can be generated in language) with the so-ciolinguist’s focus on performance (the use of speech in different contexts). Other topics taken up include the contrast between descriptive and prescriptive approaches and between speech and writing.

Ch. 2 deals with the geographical diversification of speech, using examples from India and several European countries, and then points out not only the limitations of traditional study of dialect but identifies aspects of dialectology that deserve to be more systematically explored.

Social dialectology receives attention in Ch. 3. Three case studies are taken up: John Fischer’s study of social influences on the choice of a linguistic variant (1958), William Labov’s studies of the social motivation of a sound change on Martha’s Vineyard (1963), and of the social stratification of English in New York City (1966). These are followed by an extensive discussion of the relationship between speech styles and social or ethnic categories.

In Ch. 4 the authors consider several approaches to linguistic change, with emphasis on sound change, and in Ch. 5 discuss the choices speakers of several languages or several dialects of one language sometimes have to make—codeswitching is one example. The next two chapters relate to ethnography of speaking. Ch. 6 covers language in interaction, including the use of silence as an aspect of communication, and asymmetrical talk (e.g. between employer and employee). Ch. 7 deals with the relationship between language use and linguistic forms on the one hand and gender on the other, including the somewhat controversial function of tag questions.

Chs. 8 and 9 are concerned with language contact. Ch. 8 deals with lexical borrowing, language maintenance, and language shift (the replacement of one language by another). In the discussion of maintenance and shift the authors turn to several Native American languages for examples. Ch. 9 focuses on two types of language contact, one resulting in pidgins and creoles, the other in distinct forms of colonial languages, e.g. East Indian English and West African English.

Ch. 10, ‘Critical sociolinguistics: Approaches to language and power’, may be of special interest because it considers language in the context of political ideologies—Marxism and Nazism in particular. In addition, the authors discuss the work of Pierre Bourdieu which provides a framework in which many broader phenomena having to do with language and society can be analyzed.

The last three chapters, Chs. 11–13, are largely concerned with applied sociolinguistics: sociolinguistics and education, language planning and policy, and the sociolinguistics of sign language. In Ch. 13 the authors show that sign languages are subject to many of the same influences as spoken languages and urge that their study be an integral part of linguistic research.

It should be obvious from this brief description how much the book covers. One commendable feature is the authors’ efforts to sketch the development of various sociolinguistic issues over the last several decades and to inform the reader of controversial or alternative approaches. The text is illustrated with diagrams, maps, drawings, and cartoons and is supplemented by a list of further readings, bibliography, glossary, and index. The authors claim to have written the book with the beginner in mind (and it is written clearly), but it may require a two-semester course to do full justice to this comprehensive treatment of sociolinguistics.