The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics

Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics contains forty chapters dealing with a great variety of topics in the study of language and society. It presents the major theoretical approaches in particular bilingual and multilingual contexts, and both spoken and signed languages. The volume not only offers an up-to-date guide to the diverse areas of the study of language in society, but also numerous guideposts to where the field is headed. The first section examines the contributions of the various disciplines that have contributed to the sociolinguistic enterprise. The second section deals with methods, a central concern of a discipline that bases its conclusions on evidence drawn from the real world of social interaction. The third section deals directly with a number of issues in multilingualism and language contact. The fourth section focuses on a core area of sociolinguistics: the study of language variation and change. The fifth section focuses on macrosociolinguistics and explores language policy, ideology, and attitudes in a wide range of contexts. The final section of the volume discusses sociolinguistics in a number of different domains including law, medicine, sign-language interpretation, language awareness, language revitalization, and social activism.