Sociolinguistics: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #365

by John R. Edwards

Sociolinguistics deals with the social life of language, language in its sociocultural context. It is a branch of linguistics that looks less at the shape or sound of words--morphology or phonology--and more at how our words and sentences are influenced by the society around us--for instance, how the accent or the dialect we use has been shaped by where we come from or which social class we belong to.
In this Very Short Introduction, John Edwards offers the most up-to-date brief overview available of sociolinguistics, with side trips into the sociology of language and psycholinguistics. He considers such topics as the different social evaluations of languages and dialects, the loaded significance of names, and the importance of politically-driven language planning and policy. The relationship between language and gender, sexist language, the language of poverty, and the intertwining of language and religion are also dealt with here. Edwards stresses that, while linguists see all dialects as equally valid, in the wider world powerful attitudes have always placed language varieties in social hierarchies. The author also looks at language more broadly, examining the ways in which languages rise or fall, the attempts to revive flagging or endangered varieties, the reasons why some languages came to dominate others, and the special dynamics that affect contact between "big" and "small" languages.
In both its role as our most powerful tool of communication and as the most immediate symbolic marker of human affiliation, language is pre-eminently a social phenomenon. This compact volume offers an invaluable introduction to this vital aspect of language.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Sociology, Language, Philosophy, Science, Ebooks

152 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2013

About the author

John Edwards teaches in the Department of Psychology at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Reviews

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine introduction to a subject of inexhaustible interest.

Chapter 1: Coming to terms
Chapter 2: Variation and change
Chapter 3: Perceptions of language
Chapter 4: Protecting language
Chapter 5: Languages great and small
Chapter 6: Loyalty, maintenance, shift, loss, and revival
Chapter 7: Multilingualism
Chapter 8: Name, sex, and religion

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such a short book, this was exhausting to read. I'm definitely experiencing some mid-semester burnout (and college burnout in general), but I think this book is just a pain to get through. John Edwards likes long, plodding sentences of the sort that I was taught never to use in text because they're exhausting and force the reader, who is surely going to get tired of subordinate clauses being strung together rather haphazardly, as though the sentence were an infinite chain of nouns and clauses and ideas, and as though I had never once before heard of the period, to try and remember what the heck the author is talking about.

[Daniel Supimpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful introduction to the subject for someone coming from a different field.
Dealing with the basic meaning of sociolinguistics as the study interested in the interface between "language and [social] identity" (p.1), and devoting much time analyzing the rise and fall (and mixing) of languages within social groups, Edwards develops a general guide, with rich footnotes, having its apex in the usage of naming, gender and religion as key concerns in current debates within sociolinguistics.

[Rodrigo Mares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahora terminé este corto volumen introductorio al campo de la sociolingüística. Escrito por el británico John Robert Edwards (n. Southampton, 1947), este trabajo presenta, ni más ni menos, la información esencial para familiarizarse con esta rama de la lingüística, distribuida a lo largo de ocho capítulos.

En general, los temas tratados elaboran sobre los aspectos específicos en torno a cuestiones de identidad, que básicamente apuntalan todos los aspectos tanto de la sociolingüística como de la sociología de la lengua. Un tema recurrente, como es de esperarse, es el de las percepciones del lenguaje, tanto desde lo emic como desde lo etic, y en gran medida, las conductas resultantes de dichas percepciones.

Las actitudes, apunta el autor, incluyen las creencias, emociones, y disposiciones al actuar, y son centrales a las concepciones de identidad, reflejándola y ayudando a sustentarla. Las lenguas, en tanto que símbolos de identidad de grupo, delimitan y podrían incluso ejercer una fuerza tanto centrífuga como centrípeta, dependiendo del caso. La forma de hablar de cada grupo tiene que ver con la región que habitan pero también con la clase social, íntimamente vinculada al estatus socioeconómico, lo cual produce distintivos patrones de pronunciación y de sintaxis.

Uno de los aspectos que no deben olvidarse es que las tendencias sociales y las actitudes suelen cambiar con el tiempo, dando lugar a diferentes convenciones sociales. La variación en el lenguaje podría apuntar a la manera en que los hablantes perciben su entorno y cómo se relacionan con él. De forma que ciertas diferencias en la pronunciación, por ejemplo, pueden contribuir a marcar límites en el estatus de diferentes personas o grupos. Y ello tiene que ver con presiones sociales y con el prestigio, ambas construcciones sociales sin ningún valor intrínseco. La flexibilidad mostrada por los hablantes para adaptarse a formas diferentes de expresarse pueden traducirse en un mayor éxito comunicativo, pero no necesariamente.

En general, el texto es muy ameno e informativo. Considero que la estructura el trabajo posee una lógica discursiva cuyo momento cúspide permite entrelazar las premisas presentadas a lo largo del libro en la síntesis presentada en el último capítulo. Es ahí donde el autor discurre sobre el lenguaje de la religión, el sexo, y los nombres de personas y de grupos. Fiel a mis intereses, es precisamente la cuestión del sexo-género la que considero más valiosa, pero el capítulo íntegro es una verdadera joya de información y de reflexión.

Este es otro de esos libros que me permito recomendar ampliamente, y donde señalo la obligatoriedad de su lectura para quienes estamos en el gremio docente, indistintamente de la disciplina impartida, especialmente para quienes trabajamos en lenguas y comunicaciones.

[Mahira · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the title indeed says, this introduction to sociolinguistics is very short. And trying to survey, even in the briefest of manners possible, a whole subfield of linguistics in give or take a hundred pages is a very ambitious goal which I feel the author's given up on reaching as soon as he started.
The text itself is very readable but in most of the chapters, it just feels like it has been written in the mode of a stream of consciousness where author softly brushes against some sociolinguistic topic (not necessarily the one you'd expect from the chapter title) only to then wander away to god knows where (general linguistics? religiology? the woods?). Although a nice read in terms of flow, it has left a very rambly impression on me and while the rambling contains many interesting facts, they're only rarely related to general linguistics, let alone sociolinguistics.
To not be just critical, specifically chapters 1, 6 & 7 are IMO fairly good as well as the first half of chapter 3. This and the fact the author's mentioned conlangs are the sole reasons I've given it two stars in lieu of one. In chapter 2, author seems to mash the two separate situations of hypercorrection and crossover effect for no specific reason, chapter 5 is a pure ramble, chapter 8 is a mess in the first half while "focusing" on something rather unrelated in the other. If you're looking for a short & readable introduction into this field, I'd very much recommend van Herk's What Is Sociolinguistics? intead. I can't recommend this one.

[Troy Parfitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is highly engaging, not dumbed down, but rather penned like a textbook. It’s far superior to its soporific counterpart in this series, the volume called Linguistics. I did a TESOL degree at the University of Edinburgh a few years ago and read this book just recently as a sort of refresher. Also, although sociolinguistics informs my field, I’d never read a book exclusively on the subject, and was curious to know precisely what the area encompassed. Again, a really engaging read and I liked how the author notes the ironies of academics trying to affect positive change when doing things like protecting threatened languages. He also suggests that when one language displaces another that instead of looking at the phenomenon solely in terms of good or bad, one should see it as natural and often abetted by the speakers of the vanquished language. These are challenging views in today’s political climate. So, yes, once more, an excellent effort, but I wished I could have asked the writer a number of questions along the way. For instance, for the writer, sociolinguistics hinges on identity, but I’m wondering why he prefers this view over seeing it as culture or “languaculture.” Or how about language as politics? Is not language also an ideological system or ideology itself? Language is politics and politics is language, yeah? Therefore, shouldn’t that deserve more of a mention in a book about sociolinguistics or does language as politics come under another category/subheading, like critical pedagogy? Would language as transmitter of culture come under the category language-and-culture-pedagogy? If so, does that category fall outside sociolinguistics? I suppose the answer may involve the writer’s bias. Perhaps he chooses to conceptualize language as mainly having to do with identity, because that’s the side he’s most drawn to, but I wonder if the hefty volumes he cites do the same. Perhaps I should find out. In any event, this is, as other reviews will corroborate, an outstanding introduction to the subject.

Troy Parfitt is the author of War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada

[Cheryl]

So concise. So dense. Unpacking this means that it is *not* a quick, as in short, read. (I think I may have had a similar complaint about a different "very short introduction" in the series.) However, it also means that it is crammed full of quotable bits that, unfortunately, I don't have the time to transcribe here. For example, two translations of Beowulf, as excerpted, imply the themes of the tale will be very different, as one refers to, eg, Spear-Danes and the other to folk-kings.

Interesting/clever design choices. For example, the lines are not right-justified. And the chapter title and book title, usually shown in the top margin, are on the outside margin, which seems to me to somehow save space and increase legibility (and look nifty).

I 'read' the whole book, but I didn't study it, and don't think that I'll remember much that's new to me... and some of this I already knew from elsewhere. So, I can't rate... but, bottom line, I can't particularly recommend.

Bookdarts:

"... The central characteristic of language is the capacity for storytelling, for hiding rather than revealing, for fiction and falsehood."

" Mexican Americans who have 'migrated' to English have been labeled vendidos, sellouts...,"

A double negative equals a positive, right, so, does a double positive exist and does it equal a negative? Yeah right!

"A reviewer of [Harold] Garfinkel's 'seminal' text succinctly observed that ethnomethodology involved an extraordinarily high ratio of reading time to information transfer." (Um, that's true of this book, too, imo.)

"... correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets." George Eliot, in Middlemarch, as said by 'Fred.'

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The psychologist John Edwards wrote Sociolinguistics: A Very Short Introduction. The book was published in 2013. The book has illustrations and an index. The book has a section of references. Edwards defines “sociolinguistics” as the field that is “concerned with the intertwining of language and society” (Edwards 3). Edwards is a friend and colleague of the linguist Paulin D. Djite. Djite helped edit Edwards’s book (Edwards xvii). Edwards cites Djite’s work in the chapter on “multilingualism” (Edwards 79-96, 86). The first chapter is about definitions. The second chapter is on “variation and change” of language (Edwards 15-30). The third chapter is on “perception of language” (Edwards 31-45). The fourth chapter discusses “protecting languages” (Edwards 46-59). Chapter 6 discusses “the long history of the idea that some languages are better than others” (Edwards 60). The book disproves this idea by using the history of the English language as an example of “a small language” (Edwards 62), which has become a global language (Edwards 63-67). Chapter 6 is on “loyalty, maintenance, shift, loss, and revival” in the use of language (Edwards 68-78). Central to this chapter is the idea that “all languages and all dialects are bearers of identity” (Edwards 68). The last chapter is on how languages interact with religion and gender. The chapter also includes a brief introduction to “the study of names (onomastics)” (Edwards 113-116). This chapter also contains some final thoughts summarizing the book. The book has illustrations, including a chart of the abridged family tree of the Indo-European language family (Edwards 12-13). I read the book on the Kindle. The book has a section of references and an index. Edwards’ book was a well-done introduction to Sociolinguistics.
Works Cited:
Djite, Paulin G. 2008. The Sociolinguistics of Development in Africa. Tonawanda, New York: Multilingual Matters, LTD.

[Joseph Hare · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you’re looking for an objective exploration of sociolinguistics, this is not it. The writing is generally clear, occasionally informative, and often uncomfortably biased. There’s a rather extensive defence of linguistic purism as well as a thinly veiled criticism of modern identity “neologism”.

This would be three stars without the weird finger wagging in the text. Probably just choose a different book on sociolinguistics.

[tara bomp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Introductory books are difficult. A lot of this uses subfield jargon to explain stuff that you'd already know if you knew the jargon. In addition several chapters seem much more focused on criticising the views of other academics rather than explaining charitably or putting forward an alternative perspective. This was particularly noticeable around language survival and revitalisation efforts - the author seemed very sniffy and dismissive about it.

[Mona Hosseini · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're like me and looking for an entry point into linguistics, this book isn't the right choice. While it includes fun facts about languages and occasional humor, it lacks sufficient introductory information. The book often presents examples without explanations, leaving you unsure of their relevance. Overall, the reading experience isn't enjoyable, though you might find some interesting facts.

[Mr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine introduction. My only complaint is that the author critiqued areas of study that he did not fully explain or define in the first place. For instance, his comments on discourse analysis were lucid, but his review of the subject was not. Overall, I learned quite a bit about sociolinguistics.

[Antonis Maronikolakis · Rating 2 out of 5]

While some of the historical context it interesting and there are some curious tidbits in here, in large this was not an enjoyable or productive read. I was expecting a bit more history or interesting phenomena around the world, but this was very basic and rather boring. I am not sure it is good for beginners either, not a good introduction of any particular domains in the field.

[Qi Xiao · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but doesn't feel like a good introduction to sociolinguistics. Part of the writing is quite vague, part of it is more about the author's primary research interest of group identity rather than linguistics, and there's a bit too much ranting. But it is not boring (which many other books in this series unfortunately are) and it is quite easy to finish.

[Katia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Good interesting variety of topics , easy to understand.
Nice backdrop to my uni course . Helped me decide my modules for next year :)

Author’s opinions were strong at times lmao , discourse analysis comes to mind

[Mark Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful. Not sparkling.

[Ali Tbikh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book offer little conclusions about any of the topics discussed. Which was disappointing with me.

[Luisa Fowler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly groundbreaking, but was something I had to read for graduate research methods class. I personally prefer reading Dr. Kim Potowski's sociolinguistics book.

[Tomáš · Rating 2 out of 5]

No real structure, a bunch of hardly connected topics stitched together with only some insight here and there.

[Anne-Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

“it is astonishing […] what an amount of real learning and ingenuity was wasted on this question during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” i love academia.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly interesting. Definitely recommend for anyone who is interested in language, language acquisition, and language perception.

[Eugene Hatfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating field! I’m interested in psycholinguistics as well.

[surfmadpig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this information was interesting, but of course just scraping the surface.

This is supposed to be an introduction and therefore, I believe it should be as objective and unbiased as possible. Although I had no major objections to any of the stances and approaches of the author, it was quite clear that he added lots of his own opinions on Sociolinguistics in there rather than give an objective view of the field. Which I don't find cool at all, for such a series.

[Emily]

There's nothing particularly groundbreaking in this book, but I found it useful to have a collection of easily digestible summaries of various theories, studies, or concepts that I frequently discuss with students - nice to have someone to quote more succinctly than other sources sometimes allow.

[Jo Bennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This does what it says, it's a concise useful introduction to the subject and terminology of sociolinguists. It covers the variety of contesting theories regarding the acquisition, use and structure of language within the social arena.