| Sociolinguistics (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) |  | Author: Professor R. A. Hudson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 470,897
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 296
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 0521565146
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.44
EAN: 9780521565141
ASIN: 0521565146
Publication Date: June 13, 1996
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Product Description
This new edition of R. A. Hudson's Sociolinguistics will be welcomed by students and teachers alike. To reflect changes in the field since publication of the first edition in 1980, the author has added new sections on politeness, accommodation, and prototypes; and he has expanded discussion of sex differences in language use, and the relationship between language and thought. Ample coverage of classic topics such as varieties of language, speech as social interaction, the quantitative study of speech, and linguistic and social inequality, remains.
Book Description
To reflect changes in the field since publication of the first edition in 1980, the author has added new sections on politeness, accommodation, and prototypes. He has also expanded discussion of sex differences in language use and the relationship between language and thought.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Illuminating work February 17, 2009
R. Tillman
Sociolinguistics by R. A. Hudson is an enlightening book that links language to the communities in which we speak. It acknowledges the limitations and successes of non-social linguistics and sociolinguistics. It is fairly easy for someone without an extensive linguistic background to follow. The excitement and importance of this field is entertainingly represented by the author. It is somewhat written like a textbook, with it's sections, noted vocabulary, and summations. However, it is also a cohesive book in that each topic flows into the next. One of it's limitations is that the simple stick figure illustrations do not help much with clarifying points. Also, while there are excellent anecdotal examples of specific languages and cultures, there is a lack of examples to make each linguistic topic easily understood. Even with these limitations this is a fascinating book and will be not only informative, but also enjoyable to anyone who is curious about the role of language in society.
 Wordy September 15, 2004
Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a passable, though wordy, introduction to the field. The book covers the standard topics in sociolinguistics, including: language variation, language varieties, code-switching, anthropological linguistics, gender differences, and educational implications of sociolinguistics (concentrating on Britain). The organization of topics often seems to circle back on itself, with points being repeated in different places rather than being grouped together. The author attacks the work of both Labov and Chomsky without following through with comprehensible arguments.
The explanations are not always clear, especially in the section on quantitative study of speech, which is replete with unlabeled or poorly labeled graphs. The author is also not very careful with his accuracy of comments. Consider for instance, this quote from page 61 about pidgins: "As for morphology, this is left out altogether, which again makes for ease of learning....The best way to illustrate these characteristics of pidgins is by discussing a sentence from Tok Pisin, the English-based pidgin spoken in Papua New Guinea. Bai em i no lukim mi. `He will not see me.'" Below this, luk- is glossed as `see', and -im is glossed as "added obligatorily whenever the verb has an object". It's hard to see how this example illustrates how morphology has been left out altogether! The book contains many examples of such blanket overstatements or carelessness.
Although the book is often used as a course text, it lacks suggested exercises, projects, or suggestions for additional reading. It does contain an excellent bibliography and index.
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