Sociolinguistics

The new edition of Ronald Wardhaugh's immensely popular textbook incorporates a wealth of new material reflecting the progress of the field since the start of the 1990s, with coverage of some 150 recent books or papers.

In this book Deborah Cameron explores popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use. Instead of dismissing the practice of verbal hygiene, as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values, good and bad, right and wrong, serves an important function for those engaged in it.

The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6000 or so languages in the world are safe from the threat of extinction.