This textbook is enormously enabling. Not only does it comprehensively provide the basic theory and method at the right level, but beginners have the means and the models so that they can get their 'hands dirty' with real data and real problems in doing sociolinguistics." -William Downes, University of East Anglia Including a disparate range of texts from an interview with Madonna to an article from the Calcutta Telegraph and core readings from Deborah Cameron, Rosina Lippi-Green and Norman Fairclough, this book brings together sample texts, commentaries, activities and key secondary texts. It covers every conceivable topic in the field, including accent and dialect, ethnicity and multilingualism, class, age, gender, pidgins and national and international Englishes. This book will be the number one resource for all people trying to understand the complex tie between sociology and linguistics. Flagship volume in the Routledge English Introductions series, edited by Peter Stockwell. Forthcoming volumes include Grammar and Vocabulary and Pragmatics and Discourse. ------- CONTENT Part 1: Introduction: Key Concepts in Sociolinguistics 1. A Sociolinguistic Toolkit 2. Accent and Dialect 3. Register and Style 4. Ethnicity and Multilingualism 5. Variation and Change 6. Standardisation 7. Gender 8. Pidgins and Creoles 9. New, National and International Englishes 10. Politeness and Accommodation 11. Conversation 12. Applying Sociolinguistics Part 2: Development: Studies in Language and Society 1. Undertaking a Sociolinguistic Study 2. Attitudes to Accent Variation 3. Euphemism, Register and Code 4. Code-Switching 5. Social Networks 6. Shifts in Prestige 7. Genderlects 8. Patwa and Post-Creolisation 9. Singlish and New Englishes 10. Politeness in Mixed-Sex Conversation 11. Phatics in Spoken Discourse 12. Language and Ideology Part 3: Exploration: Data for Investigation 1. Collecting and Exploring Data 2. Dialectal Variation 3. Register 4. Ethnology 5. Perceptions of Variation 6. Prestige 7. Gender 8. Creole 9. New English 10. Politeness 11. E-Discourse 12. Critical Discourse Analysis Part 4: Extension: sociolinguistic reading 1. Sociolinguistics and Language Change 2. Foreign Accents in America 3. Style and Ideology 4. Language Contact and Code-Switching 5. The Sociolinguist’s Responsibility 6. The Process of Standardisation 7. Men’s Language 8. The Origins of Pidgins and Creoles 9. World Englishes and Contact Literature 10. The Politics of Talk 11. Closing Turns 12. Linguistic Detection Further Reading References Glossarial Index