Language, Society and Power: An Introduction (review)

In the preface to this second edition, the authors classify the text as an introduction to the myriad relationships between language and society. They break down this complex topic into digestible slices and then layer the slices to illustrate the elaborate and multiplex connections between how one speaks and how one is perceived by and located within society.

In Ch. 1, Shận Wareing describes language as a ‘system’ through which power is ‘performed.’ Wareing uses George Orwell’s 1984to explore how language can act as a mechanism of control to limit thought. This idea recurs throughout the text. In the next chapter, Ishtla Singh uses de Saussure’s notion of signs and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to further the discussion of how language both represents and affects individual thought. Jason Jones and Sean Stilwell Peccei then apply these theories of the interrelationship of language and thought to politics, specifically political persuasion. Ch. 5 presents another facet of this language and thought correlation. In this chapter, Joanna Thornborrow examines how information is selected and communicated as news, including the use of embedded ideologies.

Chs. 5–9 focus more on perceptions created within and through language use, looking at language and gender, ethnicity, age, class, and identity, respectively. Drawing from many researchers in the field, including Deborah Tannen and Jennifer Coates, Wareing selects examples from current events to consider whether English is a ‘sexist language’ and how and why men and women may speak differently. In Ch. 6, Singh brings a particularly salient perspective to how language relates to ethnicity, providing firsthand instances of the us/themdichotomy of prejudice. In Ch. 7, Peccei continues this discussion of ‘otherness’ as it relates to age, both in terms of language variation and identity marking, through the use of ‘baby-talk’ and, comparatively, ‘elder-talk’. Jones in Ch. 8 extends this discussion of linguistic variety as it relates to social class. He distinguishes between accent, as sound based, and dialect, as based on grammar and vocabulary, but notes that no one form is inherently superior; language preference is directly tied to social class and power. In Ch. 9, Thornborrow wraps up the discussion of language and perceptions in terms of identity of individuals as well as social and political groups. How society uses names and forms of address is significant in the construction of identities. Similarly, social and political groups can use linguistic forms to define members and, perhaps more importantly, outsiders.

Chs. 10 and 11, both written by Linda Thomas, explore perceptions about language forms, particularly ‘nonstandard’ varieties. In her summary of the debate over ‘correctness’ of ‘standard English’, Thomas points out that while the standard form may have important social and political implications, other forms of English also have value, both to the communities where these other forms are created and to the individuals who use them. She concludes by suggesting that through an understanding of some of the ways that language, society, and power interact, individuals can resist or at least mediate some of its influences.