Kategoria BISAC: Language Arts & Disciplines >> Linguistics - Sociolinguistics

Kvetching is to the Jewish soul what breathing is to the Jewish body. For Jews, kvetching is a way of understanding the world. It is rooted in the Bible where the Israelites grumbles endlessly. This book looks at the origins of this surplus of disenchantment, and examines how it helped to create the idioms and curses in Yiddish.

Our understanding of love today is not the same as the one espoused by Plato in the fourth century BCE. Nor is it the same as the courtly love of the Renaissance, or love as defined by Stendhal or Proust or Freud. In this utterly original book, cultural critic Ilan Stavans engages in an exhilarating dialogue with Veronica Albin about love and its various manifestations. Roaming through millennia, across geographical boundaries, and from culture to culture, Stavans surprises us again and again with new perspectives on love--how we conceive of it, how it differs from place to place, what roles...

Examines the making of language policy, and language policy itself, in Britain and France, looking at how disciplines such as sociolinguistics and the analysis of the political process help in studying language policy and policymaking. Details stages, methods, and outcomes of the policymaking process, and compares policies in the two countries, with case studies on areas including the Welsh Language Act of 1993 and language policy for immigrants.

The status of 'Standard English' has featured in linguistic, educational and cultural debates over decades. This second edition of Tony Crowley's wide-ranging historical analysis and lucid account of the complex and sometimes polarised arguments driving the debate brings us up to date, and ranges from the 1830s to Conservative education policies in the 1990s and on to the implications of the National Curriculum for English language teaching in schools. Students and researchers in literacy, the history of English language, cultural theory, and English language education will find this...

Pidgins and creoles have always attracted a great deal of interest - academic and otherwise - but in recent decades they have become increasingly important as a field of linguistic inquiry. Placing pidgins and creoles in the wider setting of linguistic theory, this book bridges the gap between introductory material and primary material, revising students' knowledge of the field as well as acquainting them with key areas of debate in pidgin and creole studies. The author provides a carefully balanced introduction to theoretical aspects of creolistics as well as an even-handed discussion of...

The History of English provides an accessible introduction to the changes that English has undergone from its Indo-European beginnings to the present day. The text looks at the major periods in the history of English, and provides for each a socio-historical context, an overview of the relevant major linguistic changes, and also focuses on an area of current research interest, either in sociolinguistics or in literary studies. Exercises and activities that allow the reader to get 'hands-on' with different stages of the language, as well as with the concepts of language change, are also...

The book introduces both theoretical and applied perspectives, identifying and explaining the relevant frameworks and drawing on a range of activities/examples of how gender is constructed in discourse.
The book is divided into three parts. Part I covers the historical background to the study of gender and language, moving on through past theoretical approaches to a discussion of current debates in the field, with particular emphasis on the role of discourse analysis. In Part II, gender is examined in context with chapters focussing on gender and language in education, the mass media...

Not a how-to text, this beguiling book is instead a fascinating look at Chinese language and culture. Ranging through history, literature, folklore, linguistics, and sociology, this is a breezy, straightforward primer of surprising breadth.

This text provides an introduction to the most innovative and influential writings which have shaped and defined the relations between language, culture and cultural identity in the 20th century. Selected theoretical texts are grouped together in themed sections which include: language and sexuality; language and power; language and revolution; language and subjectivity; and language and ethnicity. Each section is prefaced by an editorial introduction outlining and contextualizing the issues and arguments with which each section is concerned, and concludes with suggestions for further...

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the French language from the perspective of modern linguistics. Placing French within its social and historical context, the authors highlight the complex, diverse aspects of the language in a lively and accessible way. A variety of topics is covered, including the distribution of French in the world, the historical development of standard French, the sound system of French, its sentence patterns, and its stylistic and geographical variations.
Fully updated and revised, this new edition places a greater emphasis on sociolinguistics. To...

Words and Minds takes a lively and accessible look at how we use language to combine our mental resources and get things done. Examining everyday language and drawing on a wide range of research, but always with a light style, Neil Mercer provides a unified account of the relationship between thought and language.
Mercer analyses real-life examples of language being used effectively, or otherwise, in many different settings, including workplaces and schools, the home, the internet and the courtroom, and offers practical insights into how we might improve our communication...

This accessible satellite textbook in the Routledge Intertext series offers students hands-on practical experience of textual analysis of conversation. Written in a clear, user-friendly style by an experienced teacher, it combines practical activities with texts, accompanied by commentaries and suggestions for further study. It can be used individually or in conjunction with the series core textbook Working With Texts Aimed at A-Level and beginning undergraduate students, The Language of Conversation:
* Analyses exactly what happens during conversation and...

Social Semiotics is a lively introduction to the ways in which different aspects of modern society combine to create meaning. These 'semiotic resources' surrounding us include obvious modes of communication such as language, gesture, images and music, but also less obvious ones such as food, dress and everyday objects, all of which carry cultural value and significance. Social Semiotics uses a wide variety of texts including photographs, adverts, magazine pages and film stills to explain how meaning is created through complex semiotic interactions. Practical exercises and examples as wide...

Routledge A Level English Guides equip AS and A2 Level students with the skills they need to explore, evaluate, and enjoy English. Books in the series are built around the various skills specified in the assessment objectives (AOs) for all AS and A2 Level English courses. Focusing on the AOs most relevant to their topic, the books help students to develop their knowledge and abilities through analysis of lively texts and contemporary data. Each book in the series covers a different area of language and literary study, and offers accessible explanations, examples, exercises, a glossary of key...

Language and Gender

• presents an up-to-date introduction to language and gender
• includes diverse work from a range of cultural, including non-Western, contexts, and represents a range of methodological approaches
• gathers together influential readings from key names in the discipline, including: Deborah Cameron, Mary Haas and Deborah Tannen.

Written by an experienced teacher and researcher in the field, Language and Gender is an essential resource for students and researchers of Applied Linguistics.

The accompanying website to this book can be...

Do our writings and our utterances reflect or describe our world, or do they intervene in it? Do they, perhaps, help to make it? If so, how? Within what limits, and with what implications? Contemporary theorists have considered the ways in which the languages we speak might be performative in just this way, and their thinking on the topic has had an important impact on a broad range of academic disciplines.

In this accessible introduction to a sometimes complex field, James Loxley:

• offers a concise and original account of critical debates around the idea of...

Have you ever noticed an accent or puzzled over a dialect phrase? Language can be a powerful tool with which one can create a persona; it can be a common ground between people or can be used as a divide between social groups. This Companion is for anyone who is interested in how and why people speak and write with such diversity.

The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics includes articles by leading scholars in the field on:

• methods of observation and analysis
• social correlates
• socio-psychological factors
• socio-political...

The Language and Sexuality Reader is the first of its kind to bring together material from the fields of anthropology, communication studies, linguistics, medicine and psychology in an examination of the role of sexuality in written and spoken language. Organized into thematic sections, the Reader addresses:

• early documentation of vocabulary used by male homosexuals and later work on the existence of a discourse style signifying gay identity
• the use of language by individuals to present themselves as sexual and gendered subjects
• the way...

In this third edition of the bestselling classic textbook, Martin Montgomery explores the key connections between language and social life. Guiding the student through discussions on child language, accent and dialect, social class and gender, as well as a number of other topics, Montgomery provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the function of language in modern society.

This third edition includes:

• new sections on dialect levelling and estuary English; hip-hop and rapping as anti-language and 'crossing' between Creole, Panjabi and South...

The Language, Society and Power Reader is the definitive reader for students studying introductory modules in language and society. Highly user-friendly, this wide-ranging collection of key readings introduces students to the thoughts and writings of major writers working within the area of sociolinguistics.