Sociolinguistic Studies ISSN: 1750-8649 (print) ISSN: 1750-8657 (online) Review The Routledge companion to sociolinguistics. Carmen Llamas, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell (2007) London: Routledge. pp. 288. ISBN 78 0-415 33850 9 Reviewed by Vianna Renaud With the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of sociolinguistic methods and areas of investigation to a wide range of readers, from new students to experienced researchers, this recently released resource from Routledge rises to the challenge. Consisting of a series of short essays from over twenty internationally acclaimed experts, this insightful yet engaging text will provide the reader with a solid foundation from which to build upon in sociolinguistics. Organised in a clear and concise manner, key areas include methods of observation and analysis, social correlates, socio-psychological factors, socio-political factors, and language change. Additional bonuses include a substantial alphabetical glossary of key terms and concepts, advice and directions for further study, and detailed cross-referencing with links to the glossary in an easy to read and understand manner. The editors Dr. Carmen Llamas, Dr. Louise Mullany, and Professor Peter Stockwell have compiled their extensive research and publishing experience to bring this educational yet entertaining resource to the field of sociolinguistics. With their combined years at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Nottingham, this book is the result of their desire, and pursuit, to produce an encompassing resource for all audiences. While there are subtle differences to Affiliation Queen s University Belfast and Birkbeck, University of London. Correspondence: Department of Applied Linguistics, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK. email: vianna_renaud@yahoo.com Sols vol 2.1 2008 175 180 2008, equinox publishing doi : 10.1558/sols.v2i1.175
176 Sociolinguistic Studies be made between core sociolinguistics, social linguistics, and the sociology of language, the goal of this Routledge Companion is to show the international and interdisciplinary diversity of the field by representing the broader view of sociolinguistics. Coupled with second language research and teaching, the overall aim of the book is to show the reader that sociolinguistics is at the centre of applied linguistics. Through the various pieces in this resource, the reader will learn more about the practical outcomes of sociolinguistics which can be applied in a variety of disciplines. From education policy, government spending, social affairs, constitutional arrangements, international relations and debates on ethnicity, nationalism, multiculturalism and cultural value, the reader will learn that there is no limit to where sociolinguistics can play an important role. The book is organised in two main parts consisting of five broad sections of articles. The first broad section, or Part 1, focuses on various Methods of Observation and Analysis. Opening up with Dominic Watt, we begin with the fundamental concept of the linguistic variable. Following in Chapter 2, Carmen Llamas gives us an overview of field methods available to the sociolinguist. In Chapter 3, Matthew Gordon discusses the first of three chapters intended to expose the reader to a variety of specific techniques of sociolinguistic analysis. Following is Jennifer Smith with morphosyntactic variation. The section is then ended with Chapter 5 focusing on the importance of discourse. In Part 2, Social Correlates, the primary focus is on the link of societal dimensions with language. Opening up with Chapter 6 and Paul Kerswill s explanation of the impact of class upon language, Jennifer Coates continues with gender. Carmen Llamas returns to explore the link between age and language in Chapter 8. The link with ethnicity is explored in Chapter 9 by Walt Wolfram and Louise Mullany concludes this section with looking at speech communities across these mentioned social dimensions. The exploration continues in Part 3, Socio-Psychological Factors, as the focus turns towards these factors of language patterning. In Chapter 11, Allan Bell discusses the impact of style on that of your personal linguistic repertoire. Language and the important link to identity is examined by Judy Dyer in Chapter 12. Peter Auer continues in Chapter 13 by exploring how speakers adjust to each other s speech styles. In Chapter 14, Peter Garrett follows with looking at how individuals outlooks and attitudes can affect language behaviour. The section is then concluded by Sandra Harris who addresses how individuals negotiate their way through politeness and power relationships. In Part 4, Socio-Political Factors, the focus shifts towards this area and the impact to language. James Milroy begins with looking at the ideology of the standard language in Chapter 16. Jane Stuart-Smith continues with exploring the influence modern media has on language. In Chapter 18 Susan Gal tackles
review: Renaud 177 the concept of multilingualism and Janet Maybin discusses the important link between language and education in Chapter 19. The section concludes with Sue Wright s exploration of language policy and the importance of language planning. The last section of the book, Part 5, Language Change, focuses on the current reality and future. Beginning with Salikoko S. Mufwene s Chapter 21 on creoles and pidgins, Donald N. Tuten continues in Chapter 22 looking at koineization and the mixing of dialects. Barbara A. Fennell shares her research in colonial and postcolonial varieties in Chapter 23 and Diane Nelson closes with a closer look of the disappearance and demise of language varieties resulting with language death. Following the five sections, the book concludes with a glossary of important terms within the field, a very impressive reference, and a wonderfully detailed index which helps the reader locate additional resources. I particularly enjoyed the way Part 1, Methods of Observation and Analysis, opened up. Dominic Watt introduced us to key terms, a brief history, and discussion on future trends, all the while using phonological variation in Berwick English as the key example. This practical application in addition to the graphs illustrated a key point within sociolinguistics. Carmen Llamas explored the various types of study, speakers, and data therefore providing a good foundation into the field methods necessary for research. Once again, I found this article to be very helpful and practical for the reader. Matthew J. Gordon continues on by covering some of the major components of a sociolinguistic analysis and how understanding the methodological choice is essential to evaluating the validity of the study s conclusions. Jennifer Smith discusses the importance of transcription, the choice of linguistic variable, circumscription and extraction, coping and statistical analysis, and how to uncover competing influences. She then uses the Labovian paradigm to outline some of the necessary steps taken in her research which I found to be very helpful in understanding the process. The last piece in this section focused on the discourse that is generated by various techniques of analysis. Mark Garner discusses how this discourse analysis can be used to explore the communicative roles within communities. He relates this to Conversation Analysis, which began as the study of everyday common discussions. Once again, the work of Labov is identified as being the classic theory behind the current trends. I found this section to be written in such a way that the concepts and terms were easily understood. The visual components including charts and graphs were additional resources that I found helpful to illustrate the points being made. The links to previous work done in the field also helped to educate the reader in the foundation of sociolinguistics. From the topics in the second section, Social Correlates, the overall emphasis was placed on the proven linkage between the social aspects and factors to the
178 Sociolinguistic Studies variation within language. For this, Paul Kerswill revisits the impact that Karl Marx made in the field. Beginning with the basic structure of society leading into various divergences in speech with new dialects and accents, he charts the development of sociolects. Jennifer Coates continues with looking at gender as a social correlate. Beginning with a brief history, she then expands with the research that has been done in looking at gender differences. This contains differing approaches to language and gender as well as the establishment of sexuality and queer linguistics. Carmen Llamas then focuses on age in which not much research has been done in the field. Aided by easy to understand graphs and references to previous work done by Eckert, she discusses the sociolinguistics of age and how the sociolinguistics of age is always in a state of change and therefore needs further investigation. Walt Wolfram continues with that of ethnic varieties and the first important step of defining ethnic group affiliation. From this point we can look at the ethnolinguistic distinctiveness which leads us to examine the actual linguistic foundation of ethnic varieties. The final piece in this section is from Louise Mullany and her work on speech communities. Beginning with defining speech communities and referring to the work of Labov, she discusses the impact of social networks and the social networks model. She compares the three approaches of the social network model, the communities of practice model, and the speech communities framework. She concludes that more integrated community frameworks would be of great benefit to the field. The flow between the various articles and the balance between theory and practical implications in all of these articles were welcome traits to continue with the user-friendliness of the book. Part 3, Socio-Psychological Factors, begins with Allan Bell and his research into language style. Looking at style as attention to speech, he refers to Howard Giles s Speech Accommodation Theory and the link between linguistic performance and identity. I particularly enjoyed this connection as it aided in better understanding the following articles. In the second article, Judy Dyer goes on with exploring language and identity and how the three waves of social variation help to give us a bigger picture of the research in this area. First looking at indexicality, she covers other important aspects such as identity as a social category, identity as a contact phenomenon, speech accommodation theory and acts of identity, identity as practice, and dialect contact contexts. Peter Auer follows by focusing on mobility, contact, and accommodation and begins with supplying some basic distinctions of long-term dialect accommodation. This leads into the examination of both external and internal factors which influence accommodation. The logical move into language attitudes are then explored by Peter Garrett who uses English as his primary example. I couldn t
review: Renaud 179 help but agree with his conclusion that some of the recent developments in language attitudes research reflect a move towards further exploration. As the reader will begin to realize, further study into language attitudes will become more and more crucial in the future. Finishing the section, Sandra Harris explores the link between politeness and power. Referring to the historic work done by Brown and Levinson, some of the current issues she raises include that of conceptualizing power and that of conceptualizing politeness as contestable rather than predominantly normative. Briefly discussing the negotiation of status and identity, she ends with stressing that the importance of recording interactive discourse is necessary to enabling those in the field to understand in greater depth the link between power and politeness. The next section focuses on socio-political factors. James Milroy begins with an introduction to the principle of uniformity focussing on the ideology of the standard language. Looking at the correctness and authority of language standardization, he continues on with that of prestige and legitimacy of one standard variety that leads to the other forms becoming illegitimate. This historical explanation provided an excellent introduction into the following articles. Jane Stuart-Smith discusses the influence of the media on language change and how researching this link is quite important to the field. Including graphs to highlight claims about television and language made by sociolinguistics, she concludes that the impact of television will continue to be a challenging area. Following, Susan Gal presents her ideas on multilingualism. Using South America as an example, she explores the process of multilingual practices then follows with discussing the theoretical implications of studying multilingualism. Focusing on language and education, Janet Maybin discusses the talk and literacy in the classroom and how language and literacy practices differ at home and school. Concluding that multilingual contexts must be used when looking at the difference between language used in educational setting and that which is used in social settings, the section then closes with Sue Wright s article on language policy and language planning. Looking at language policy and language planning (LPLP) and how it exists in all societies, she uses the example of nation building in Europe to illustrate this concept. I was pleasantly surprised at the collection of themes in this section. While I have often wondered about several of the above topics, this was the first time and book that highlighted current research taking place. In the final section, Part 5, the emphasis is on language change. Salikoko S. Mufwene opens the section with a piece on creoles and pidgins. Beginning with the definitions and coupled with a helpful map, Dr. Mufwene leads us through the development of creoles. Donald N. Tuten follows with his focus on koineization. Originally a Greek term, it is used to look at the developments of certain language varieties. He discusses the linguistic changes of koineization
180 Sociolinguistic Studies and how the original theory that it would take three generations for koineization should be more flexible. Colonial and postcolonial varieties are then the focus of Barbara A. Fennell. Beginning with basic definitions of various key terms, she guides us through the development of English and other colonizer languages within the former colonies. Discussing the differences between the colonizers on their language development, she refers to the work of Hickey and his list of factors that impacted colonial varieties. In conclusion, we must look at the consequences for language imposition, language death, language policy and language planning as we look towards the future. This section is then closed with Diane Nelson and her article on language death. Through discussing the three different types of language death, we learn about the implications this can cause a society and culture where greater public awareness is the primary solution. I agree that language death has been, and will continue, to take place throughout the world. Therefore, with greater awareness, and the addition of user friendly resources like this one, we as students and researchers can spread the message. Overall, I found this resource to not only be very useful to the field of sociolinguistics but also to novice and expert audiences. The sheer diversity of the topics exhibited here added additional value to the encompassing scope and purpose of the book. The organization facilitated each article and section flowing into each other which made for a logical format as the key themes immerged. The addition of charts, graphs, and other visuals as well as the layout of key terms and reference glossary only added to the user friendliness of the resource. The methodology presented also added to the intellectual integrity of the book and highlighted the contributors enthusiasm and dedication to the field. I can see their passion being contagious and inspiring for new students who would like to expand their knowledge. As the editors and contributors wanted to do, they have delivered an argumentative dimension making it clear that sociolinguistic exploration is an on-going dialogue and debate rather than simply being a set of facts. As discussed, it is clear that discourse is, and can only be, a major focus of contemporary linguistic research. It is fundamental to not only understanding human interaction but also to the field of sociolinguistics which, as we have looked at, impacts numerous other fields as well.