Language and Identities - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0748635777 ISBN 13: 9780748635771

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2009

Synopsis

This volume offers a broad survey of our current state of knowledge on the connections between variability in language use and the construction, negotiation, maintenance and performance of identities. Bringing together the expertise of distinguished international scholars in specially commissioned chapters, the book provides a thematic reader and essential resource for advanced students and researchers in language and identity studies.Leading scholars consider:* Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of language and identity* Individual identities* Group and community identities* National and supra-local regional identitiesDealing sequentially with both social and personal identities at various levels, the chapters use detailed empirical evidence to illustrate how the multi-layered, dynamic nature of identities is realised through linguistic behaviour. Several chapters in the collection focus on contexts in which a heightened sense of identity might be expected: cases in which identities may be disputed, changing, blurred, peripheral, or imposed. Such a focus on complex contexts allows clearer insight into the identity-making and -marking functions of language. The collection approaches these topics from a range of perspectives, with contributions from sociolinguists, sociophoneticians, linguistic anthropologists, clinical linguists and forensic linguists.

About this title

About the Author:

Carmen Llamas is Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of York.

Dominic Watt is Lecturer at the University of York.

Review:

The book is a valuable contribution to the slowly growing body of works on the identity-marking dimension of language. By providing readers with a strong theoretical grounding on the subject, a wide range of methodological approaches to consider, and a broad range of empirical studies by respected specialists from various fields, this book about language and identity will surely find its way in many libraries, course outlets, reference lists, and citations for years to come.

(Isabel Penfiaco Martin English World-Wide)

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0748635777
• ISBN 13: 9780748635771
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Llamas Carmen, Watt Dominic