Dominic Watt - Böcker

Language and Identities 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 at different levels - individual, group, regional and national. It brings together over 20 specially commissioned chapters, written by distinguished international scholars, on a range of topics around the language/identity nexus. The collection deals sequentially with identities at various levels, both social and personal. Using detailed, empirical evidence, the chapters illustrate how the multi-layered, dynamic nature of identities is realised through linguistic behaviour. Several chapters in the volume focus on contexts in which we might expect to observe a foregrounding of factors involved in the definition and delimitation of self and other: for example, 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.

This book sets out to encompass a broad, geographically diverse spectrum of border contexts, and to illustrate a representative range of methodological approaches used by researchers in the field. Political borders that divide monoglossic and heteroglossic territories are examined, as are regional and local borders. Symbolic borders, which may for example be encoded in the semiotic manipulation of the linguistic landscape, are also considered. We assess the linguistic implications of the presence of borders of the preceding kinds in applied contexts such as language planning and policy (e.g. for multilingual education; protection of minority languages) and border control (via the chapter on language analysis for the determination of origin, ‘LADO’). Each border is unique to itself, making generalisations about how language functions in ‘borderlands’ difficult to formulate. Casting the net as wide as we intend will, however, equip us to develop and refine models of how language is used to construct borders, and to indicate on which side of a border speakers situate themselves. The dual reactive and proactive functions that language serves in this respect are brought into focus, and the interface and tensions between essentialist and constructionist approaches to identity are explored. The book will place particular emphasis on the last of these topics.

The Handbook of Dialectology provides an authoritative, up-to-date and unusually broad account of the study of dialect, in one volume. Each chapter reviews essential research, and offers a critical discussion of the past, present and future development of the area. The volume is based on state-of-the-art research in dialectology around the world, providing the most current work available with an unusually broad scope of topicsProvides a practical guide to the many methodological and statistical issues surrounding the collection and analysis of dialect dataOffers summaries of dialect variation in the world's most widely spoken and commonly studied languages, including several non-European languages that have traditionally received less attention in general discussions of dialectologyReviews the intellectual development of the field, including its main theoretical schools of thought and research traditions, both academic and appliedThe editors are well known and highly respected, with a deep knowledge of this vast field of inquiry

The Handbook of Dialectology provides an authoritative, up-to-date and unusually broad account of the study of dialect, in one volume. Each chapter reviews essential research, and offers a critical discussion of the past, present and future development of the area. The volume is based on state-of-the-art research in dialectology around the world, providing the most current work available with an unusually broad scope of topicsProvides a practical guide to the many methodological and statistical issues surrounding the collection and analysis of dialect dataOffers summaries of dialect variation in the world's most widely spoken and commonly studied languages, including several non-European languages that have traditionally received less attention in general discussions of dialectologyReviews the intellectual development of the field, including its main theoretical schools of thought and research traditions, both academic and appliedThe editors are well known and highly respected, with a deep knowledge of this vast field of inquiry

English Accents and Dialects is an essential guide to contemporary social and regional varieties of English spoken in the British Isles today. Together with invaluable overviews of numerous regional accents and dialects, this fifth edition provides a detailed description of key features of Received Pronounciation (RP) as well as several major non-standard varieties of English.Key features:main regional differences are followed by a survey of speech in over 20 areas of the UK and Ireland, audio samples of which are available to download at www.routledge.com/cw/hughesrecent findings on London English, Aberdeen English and Liverpool Englishcontains new entries on Hull, Manchester, Carlisle, Middlesbrough, Southampton, London West Indian, Lancashire and the Shetlandsadditional exercises with answers online accompany the new varieties clear maps throughout for locating particular accents and dialects. This combination of reference manual and practical guide makes this fifth edition of English Accents and Dialects a highly useful resource providing a comprehensive and contemporary coverage of speech in the UK and Ireland today.