Language and Society: An Introduction

Language and Society introduces a broad and exciting array of topics relating to the interaction of language and society in a clear, non-specialist way. The book discusses the socio-political roles played by dominant, large languages around the world, and how the growth of major national and official languages is threatening the existence of smaller, minority languages, leading to the widespread occurrence of language death in modern times. As individuals adopt new ways of speaking, many languages are disappearing, others are spoken in mixed-ways combining words from different languages, and even very 'stable' languages are coming to take on distinctive new shapes, as young speakers create novel expressions and make use of innovative pronunciations. Carefully explaining the many reasons for language variation and change which relate to the structure of society and the expression of group and personal identity, Language and Society presents a detailed but highly accessible examination of the social importance of language in our everyday lives, and how our knowledge of language can either act as a facilitating gateway or inhibit access to education, advances in employment and the development of social status. The volume also includes chapters focused specifically on the global growth of knowledge of English, multilingualism, differences in the way that gender and gendered practices interact with language, and the ways that language may potentially influence the ways speakers perceive the world--

• | Author: Andrew Simpson
• | Publisher: Oxford University Press
• | Publication Date: Feb 01, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 488 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0190210664
• | ISBN-13: 9780190210663