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List of figures; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Sociolinguistics and English around the World Jenny Cheshire;
1. The UK and the USA Jenny Cheshire;
2. Ireland John Harris;
3. Urban and rural varieties of Hiberno-English Markku Filppula;
4. Sociolinguistic variation and methodology: after as a Dublin variable Jeffrey L. Kallen;
5. The interpretation of social constraints on variation in Belfast English James Milroy;
6. Canada J. K. Chambers;
7. Phonological variation and recent language change in St John's English Sandra Clarke;
8. Sociophonetic variation in Vancouver John H. Esling;
9. Social differentiation in Ottowa English Howard B. Woods;
10. New Zealand Allan Bell, and Janet Holmes;
11. Social constraints on the phonology of New Zealand English Donn Bayard;
12. Maori English: a New Zealand myth? Richard A. Benton;
13. Sporting formulae in New Zealand English: two models of male solidarity Koenraad Kuiper;
14. Australia Gregory Guy;
15. /ae/ and /a:/ in Australian English David Bradley;
16. Variation in subject-verb agreement in inner Sydney English Edina Eisikovits;
17. Australian Creole English: the effect of cultural knowledge on language and memory Margaret T. S. Steffensen;
18. South Asia Thiru Kandiah;
19. Final consonant cluster simplification in a variety of Indian English Farhat Khan;
20. Patterns of language use in a bilingual setting in India Anju Sahgal;
21. Speech acts in an indigenised variety: sociocultural values and language variation Kamal K. Sridhar;
22. Southeast Asia and Hongkong Mary W. J. Tay;
23. Stylistic shifts in theEnglish of the Philippine print media Andrew B. Gonzalez;
24. Variation in Malaysian English: the pragmatics of languages in contact Peter H. Lowenberg;
25. Social and linguistic constraints on variation in the use of two grammatical variables in Singapore English John Platt;
26. East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya) Mohammed M. H. Abdulaziz;
27. The politics of the English language in Kenya and Tanzania Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro;
28. National and subnational features in Kenyan English Josef J. Schmied;
29. Southern Africa Maurice M. Chishimba;
30. Sources and consequences of miscommunication in Afrikaans English - South African English encounters J. Keith Chick;
31. Syntactic variation in South African Indian English: the relative clause Rajend Mesthrie;
32. The social significance of language use and language choice in a Zambian urban setting: an empirical study of three neighbourhoods in Lusaka Alice K. Siachitema;
33. West Africa Eyamba G. Bokamba;
34. The pronoun system in Nigerian Pidgin: a preliminary study Nicholas Faraclas;
35. The sociolinguistics of prepositional usage in Nigerian English Munzali Jibril;
36. Social and linguistic constraints on plural marking in Liberian English John Victor Singlar;
37. The Caribbean Donald Winford;
38. Standardisation in a Creole continuum situation: the Guyana case Hubert Devonish;
39. Gender roles and linguistic variation in the Belizean Creole community Genevieve Escure;
40. Sociolinguistic variation in Cane Walk: a quantitative case study John R. Rickford;
41. The Pacific Suzanne Romaine;
42. Watching girls pass by in Tok Pisin Peter Muhihausler;
43. Sociolinguistic variation and language attitudes in Hawaii Peter Muhihausler;
44. Variation in Fiji English Jeff Siegel.
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Keith Shaw
reviewed English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on March 06, 2011
English around the World
Linguists, most of them scholars and academics, tend to accept that language is in a continuing state of evolution and change. They consider this the natural state of language, and that any attempt to stop change with a set of rigid grammatical rules and notions of standards is either counterproductive or simply wrong-headed.
Lined up against them is a more traditionalist army of grammarians, plain language enthusiasts, and keepers of "correct" usage, who feel that change is undesirable and that the laissez-faire attitude of linguists is an invitation to cultural chaos. These two groups have been at loggerheads for decades, each deeply suspicious of the other.
Along comes Deborah Cameron, a linguist at Strythclyde University (UK) who decides to take a more open-minded look at the attitudes of the traditionalists and offers her colleagues a number of insights meant to scale down the level of hostility between the two camps. Her central notion is there in the title: verbal hygiene.
She proposes that not only does language evolve; it generates its own "caregivers." These people look after its welfare, wrong-headed or not, and practice a kind of "hygiene" that counteracts the messiness of uncontrolled growth. The evolution of language, she says, is actually a dynamic between opposing forces of conservation and innovation. While there is no "right" or "wrong" way to use language, Cameron suggests that language is enlivened by the push and pull between these opposing ideas.
To challenge the idea that standard English exists apart from the people who use it, she provides an account for how it comes into being, at least as she sees it among UK writers. And she challenges the confident trust we might have in the use of dictionaries as a measure of "correctness." Reading her analysis, you realize that dictionaries are part of a circular process that both reflects and determines usage.
Cameron extends her discussion of language with insightful and entertaining analyses of "political correctness," communication between genders, and the types of politically-inspired public hysteria that spring up around the schools' perceived failure to teach correct grammar. She even takes to task our confident acceptance of George Orwell's dictums in his often cited essay, "Politics and the English Language."
This is a book for anyone fascinated by not only the language of politics but the politics of language. Its ideas are argued thoughtfully and with considerable insight. As companions to this book I'd also recommend the books of American linguist Deborah Tannen ("You Just Don't Understand") and Simon Winchester's account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, "The Professor and the Madman."
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Add English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, This volume looks at the little explored but increasingly important topic of the development of English as a world language. It gives a comprehensive account of our current knowledge of variation in the use of the English language around the world. Overvi, English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, This volume looks at the little explored but increasingly important topic of the development of English as a world language. It gives a comprehensive account of our current knowledge of variation in the use of the English language around the world. Overvi, English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives to your collection on WonderClub |
