Sociolinguistics
Theoretical Debates

An indispensable guide to the newest and most searching ideas about language in society.

Nikolas Coupland (Edited by)

9781107635753, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 June 2016

460 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.2 x 15.3 x 2.8 cm, 0.68 kg

'This collection is clearly aimed at readers who already have a solid foundation in modern sociolinguistics and as such will likely stimulate new research directions. It should also prove useful to students of semiotics or linguistic historiography.' E. J. Vajda, Choice

Sociolinguistics is a dynamic field of research that explains the role and function of language in social life. This book offers the most substantial account available of the core contemporary ideas and arguments in sociolinguistics, with an emphasis on innovation and change. Bringing together original writing by more than twenty of the field's most influential international thinkers and researchers, this is an indispensable guide to the newest and most searching ideas about language in society. For researchers and advanced students it gives access to the field's most pressing issues and debates, as well as providing a platform for new initiatives in sociolinguistic research.

1. Introduction: sociolinguistic theory and the practice of sociolinguistics Nikolas Coupland
Part I. Theorising Social Meaning: 2. The 'push' of Lautgesetze, the 'pull' of enregisterment Michael Silverstein
3. Variation, meaning, and social change Penelope Eckert
4. Indexicality and ethnography Alexandra Jaffe
5. Sociolinguistic differentiation Susan Gal
Part II. Language, Markets and Materiality: 6. Treating language as an economic resource: discourse, data and debate Monica Heller and Alexandre Duchêne
7. Theorizing the market in sociolinguistics Helen Kelly-Holmes
8. Embodied sociolinguistics Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall
Part III. Sociolinguistics, Place and Mobility: 9. Mobile times, mobile terms: the trans-super-poly-metro movement Alastair Pennycook
10. Sedentarism and nomadism in the sociolinguistics of dialect David Britain
11. From mobility to complexity in sociolinguistic theory and method Jan Blommaert
Part IV. Power, Mediation and Critical Sociolinguistics: 12. Critical debates: discourse, boundaries and social change Sari Pietikainen
13. Theorizing media, mediation and mediatization Jannis Androutsopoulos
14. Foucault, Gumperz and governmentality: interaction, power and subjectivity in the twenty-first century Ben Rampton
Part V. Sociolinguistics, Contexts and Impact: 15. Are there zombies in language policy? Theoretical interventions and the continued vitality of (apparently) defunct concepts Lionel Wee
16. Quantitative sociolinguistics and sign languages: implications for sociolinguistic theory Ceil Lucas and Robert Bayley
17. Theorising language in sociolinguistics and the law: (how) can sociolinguistics have an impact on inequality in the criminal justice process? Diana Eades
Part VI. The Evolution of Sociolinguistic Theory: 18. Succeeding waves: seeking sociolinguistic theory for the twenty-first century Allan Bell
19. Language theory in twenty-first-century sociolinguistics: beyond Dell Hymes? Barbara Johnstone
20. Five Ms for sociolinguistic change Nikolas Coupland.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Sociolinguistics [CFB]