Towards a Social Grammar of Language

Towards a Social Grammar of Language
Author: Mathew C. Grayshon
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-07-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110806649

The Contributions to the Sociology of Language series features publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It addresses the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches - theoretical and empirical - supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of scholars interested in language in society from a broad range of disciplines - anthropology, education, history, linguistics, political science, and sociology. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Natalie Fecher.

Grammar Matters

Grammar Matters
Author: Jila Ghomeshi
Publisher: Arp Books
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2010
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781894037440

It is hard to find someone who doesn't have a pet peeve about language. The act of bemoaning the decline of language has become something of a cottage industry. High profile, self-appointed language police worry that new forms of popular media are contributing to sloppiness, imprecision, and a general disregard for the rules of grammar and speech. Within linguistics the term "prescriptivism" is used to refer to the judgements that people make about language based on the idea that some forms and uses of language are correct and others incorrect. This book argues that prescriptivism is unfounded at its very core, and explores why it is, nevertheless, such a popular position. In doing so it addresses the politics of language: what prescriptivist positions about language use reveal about power, authority, and various social prejudices.

We Are Our Language

We Are Our Language
Author: Barbra A. Meek
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816504482

For many communities around the world, the revitalization or at least the preservation of an indigenous language is a pressing concern. Understanding the issue involves far more than compiling simple usage statistics or documenting the grammar of a tongue—it requires examining the social practices and philosophies that affect indigenous language survival. In presenting the case of Kaska, an endangered language in an Athabascan community in the Yukon, Barbra A. Meek asserts that language revitalization requires more than just linguistic rehabilitation; it demands a social transformation. The process must mend rips and tears in the social fabric of the language community that result from an enduring colonial history focused on termination. These “disjunctures” include government policies conflicting with community goals, widely varying teaching methods and generational viewpoints, and even clashing ideologies within the language community. This book provides a detailed investigation of language revitalization based on more than two years of active participation in local language renewal efforts. Each chapter focuses on a different dimension, such as spelling and expertise, conversation and social status, family practices, and bureaucratic involvement in local language choices. Each situation illustrates the balance between the desire for linguistic continuity and the reality of disruption. We Are Our Language reveals the subtle ways in which different conceptions and practices—historical, material, and interactional—can variably affect the state of an indigenous language, and it offers a critical step toward redefining success and achieving revitalization.

Towards a Social Science of Language

Towards a Social Science of Language
Author: Gregory R. Guy
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 378
Release: 1997-05-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027276013

This is a two-volume collection of original research papers designed to reflect the breadth and depth of the impact that William Labov has had on linguistic science. Four areas of 'Labovian' linguistics are addressed: First is the study of variation and change; the papers in sections I and II of the first volume take this as their central theme, with a focus on either the social context and uses of language (I) or on the the internal linguistic dynamics of variation and change (II). The study of African American English, and other language varieties in the Americas spoken by people of African descent and influenced by their linguistic heritage, is the subject of the papers in section III of the first volume. The third theme is the study of discourse; the papers in section I of the second volume develop themes in Labovian linguistics that go back to Labov's work on narrative, descriptive, and therapeutic discourse. Fourth is the emphasis on language use, the search for discursive, interactive, and meaningful determinants of the complexity in human communication. Papers with these themes appear in section II of the second volume.

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: Susan Foster-Cohen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-07-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 023024078X

This book provides a snapshot of the field of language acquisition at the beginning of the 21st Century. It represents the multiplicity of approaches that characterize the field and provides a review of current topics and debates, as well as addressing some of the connections between sub-fields and possible future directions for research.

Words Matter

Words Matter
Author: Sally McConnell-Ginet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2020-08-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108427219

Featuring current and historical concrete examples and minimising technical vocabulary, Words Matter is for all interested in examining ideas about language and its connections to social conflict and change. Accessible to general readers, the book will also be useful in linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, or other classes featuring language.

Introducing Discourse Analysis

Introducing Discourse Analysis
Author: James Paul Gee
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1351580876

Introducing Discourse Analysis: From Grammar to Society is a concise and accessible introduction by bestselling author, James Paul Gee, to the fundamental ideas behind different specific approaches to discourse analysis, or the analysis of language in use. The book stresses how grammar sets up choices for speakers and writers to make, choices which express, not unvarnished truth, but perspectives or viewpoints on reality. In turn, these perspectives are the material from which social interactions, social relations, identity, and politics make and remake society and culture. The book also offers an approach to how discourse analysis can contribute to lessening the ideological divides and echo chambers that so bedevil our world today. Organized in a user-friendly way with short numbered sections and recommended readings, Introducing Discourse Analysis is an essential primer for all students of discourse analysis within linguistics, education, communication studies, and related areas.

Intersubjectivity in Action

Intersubjectivity in Action
Author: Jan Lindström
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027259038

Intersubjectivity is a precondition for human life – for social organization as well as for individual development and well-being. Through empirical examination of social interactions in everyday and institutional settings, the authors in this volume explore the achievement and maintenance of intersubjectivity. The contributions show how language codes and creates intersubjectivity, how interactants move towards shared understanding in interaction, how intersubjectivity is central to phenomena and experiences often considered merely individual, and how intersubjectivity evolves through learning. While the core methodology of the studies is Conversation Analysis, the volume highlights the advantages of using several methods to tackle intersubjectivity.

Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation

Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation
Author: Lauren Hall-Lew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108633609

The 'third wave' of variation study, spearheaded by the sociolinguist Penelope Eckert, places its focus on social meaning, or the inferences that can be drawn about speakers based on how they talk. While social meaning has always been a concern of modern sociolinguistics, its aims and assumptions have not been explicitly spelled out until now. This pioneering book provides a comprehensive overview of the central tenets of variation study, examining several components of dialects, and considering language use in a wide variety of cultural and linguistic contexts. Each chapter, written by a leader in the field, posits a unique theoretical claim about social meaning and presents new empirical data to shed light on the topic at hand. The volume makes a case for why attending to social meaning is vital to the study of variation while also providing a foundation from which variationists can productively engage with social meaning.

Towards a Social Grammar of Language

Towards a Social Grammar of Language
Author: Matthew Clifford Grayshon
Publisher: de Gruyter Mouton
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1977
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.