17.206, Review: Textbooks/Socioling: Coulmas (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-206. Sat Jan 21 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.206, Review: Textbooks/Socioling: Coulmas (2005)

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1)
Date: 20-Jan-2006
From: Simo Määttä < Simo.Maatta at uta.fi >
Subject: Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 20:49:17
From: Simo Määttä < Simo.Maatta at uta.fi >
Subject: Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices 
 

AUTHOR: Coulmas, Florian
TITLE: Sociolinguistics
SUBTITLE: The Study of Speakers' Choices
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1719.html 

Simo K. Määttä, School of Modern Languages and Translation 
Studies, University of Tampere, Finland.

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the main issues 
with which sociolinguistics is engaged. It is particularly suitable for 
undergraduate education: while some of the concepts might be 
difficult to grasp, they are presented in an easily accessible form and 
combined with numerous concrete examples, which makes 
understanding them easier. Besides, SOCIOLINGUISTICS is a 
valuable reference book for anyone interested in the social life of 
language.

The introductory chapter examines theories of language and 
language variation within different traditions of linguistic. Language 
has a biological basis, on the one hand, it lives in society, on the 
other. Both aspects need to be studied. However, (theoretical) 
linguistics cannot explain linguistic diversity: only an exploration of the 
social side of language can. Starting with Saussure's mention of 
language being a social fact, i.e., a code shared within a language 
community, the chapter discusses differences between sociolinguistics 
('language as a social fact') and autonomous linguistics ('language as 
a natural fact'). These two approaches should be regarded as 
complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Indeed, 
while 'biolinguistics' disregards the historical dimension of language, 
this aspect is crucial in approaches stressing the social side of 
language. As the subtitle of the textbook suggests, choice is a key 
notion in sociolinguistics. Thus, its aim is to study individual choices 
affecting speech behaviour insofar as these choices build up collective 
choices. Since cooperative behaviour within a speech community 
requires appropriate usage of unmarked choices, linguistic 
socialization consists primarily of learning to master the difference 
between marked and unmarked choices.

Chapter Two examines the social stratification of language and the 
often uneasy distinction between standard and dialect. While 
language variation is universal and has been the subject of inquiry in 
several cultures, variationist sociolinguistics is essentially a Western 
science. Thus, concepts developed within this paradigm should be 
applied with caution to other societies and other times, for there are 
diverging patterns of assigning prestige to particular speech 
behaviour. Numerous examples are used to illustrate the culture-
specific nature of dialectal fragmentation based on geographical or 
social stratification. Special emphasis is placed on the fact that not 
only social class and geographical location but also factors such as 
gender, ethnicity, race, occupation, etc. should be taken into account 
within the variationist paradigm. On the other hand, while 
sociolinguists need a model of social stratification for their studies, 
such abstractions are always artificial and arbitrary. Indeed, rather 
than concentrating on social indexing through isolated dialects, 
today's sociolinguistics is more interested in dialects and populations 
in contact, as well as the ways in which speakers accommodate their 
speech in each particular situation.

While there is a difference between the ways in which men and 
women speak in all language communities which have been studied, 
these differences are not always consistent. Chapter Three, which 
examines the relation between language and gender, provides 
various intriguing examples of lexical, phonological, and discourse-
related studies about gender as a discrete sociolinguistic variable, yet 
contingent upon other factors, such as age, culture, situation, 
education, etc. A good part of the chapter is dedicated to the political 
dimension of language and gender: no other area of (socio) linguistic 
inquiry has been more politicized.

Chapter Four scrutinizes age as a factor of sociolinguistic variation. 
Not only the particularities of 'deviant' age cohorts, such as infancy 
and old age, but also those of adulthood, i.e., the norm, are examined. 
The presentation of studies of Japanese 'high-school-girl' talk 
provides a particularly interesting example for classroom discussion. 
This chapter also considers the relation between old age and 
language attrition, as well as beliefs and attitudes related to age.

The topic of Chapter Five is language change over time. Language, 
within this chapter, is understood as an event rather than a thing; 
indeed, language per se, for instance a sound segment, does not 
change. Rather, people change the way they pronounce sounds, i.e., 
they CHOOSE differently. From this speaker-centred perspective, 
language change is best understood in terms of apparent time (as 
opposed to real time) -- since the age gap between different 
generations corresponds to a certain amount of time, linguistic 
variation between these generations indicates linguistic change in 
time. Thus, the concept of apparent time allows combining synchronic 
and diachronic linguistics. The chapter presents fascinating 
longitudinal studies of linguistic change over generations. It also 
discusses the increased prestige and dissemination of non-standard 
varieties spoken in big cities and discusses different points of view 
concerning the origins of linguistic change.

Chapter Six is dedicated to politeness studies, a major sub-field of 
sociolinguistics today. The chapter includes the discussion of the 
concepts of face, markedness, and cooperation, which form the 
general framework from which politeness arises, and presents a 
comprehensive overview of research on linguistic politeness in 
different languages, in particular Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and 
Japanese.

While the first part of the book deals with micro-level choices, Part 
Two presents sociolinguistic phenomena related to macro-level 
choices. Code-switching, the topic of Chapter Seven, is examined 
from the viewpoint of speakers engaging in this practice ('Who 
switches'?), the ways in which this is done ('How'?), and the reasons 
why code-switching occurs ('Why'?). The term 'code' is preferred 
instead of 'language' because switching can happen both between 
varieties of one language and different languages. The chapter also 
discusses the relation between code-switching and bilingualism. 
Examples of different types of bilingual behaviour, most of which 
cannot be classified as code-switching, provide particularly useful 
material for classroom discussion.

Diglossia and bilingualism, in Chapter Eight, are defined by using 
several examples from throughout the world. The chapter discusses 
issues such as writing and standardization, linguistic ideology, genetic 
relation between language varieties as an alleged prerequisite for 
diglossia, status and function, domains, accommodation, and the 
measurement of bilingualism.

The ways in which languages spread, disappear, and resist attrition is 
the topic of Chapter Nine. While the spread of today's major 
languages and their symbolic strength compared to their speaker 
populations is explained in detail in this chapter, the discussion of the 
languages of the Internet is particularly thought-provoking. The 
chapter also examines language loyalty and ethnolinguistic vitality and 
concludes with a discussion of the overwhelming presence of English.

Chapter Ten deals with individual, social, and national identity as 
related to language. The notion of a stable, uncontested identity is 
challenged: linguistic identities can be multiple and they can be 
constructed.

Chapter Eleven concentrates on language planning: it explains the 
reasons why language planning exists and the many measures it 
involves, again with numerous examples from different language 
communities. The chapter also includes a short discussion of the 
Western bias of language planning.

Writing, writing systems, and the passage from oral to written usage 
are themes of Chapter Twelve, comprising a discussion of the political 
implications of choosing a language, a variety, a writing system and a 
script, and spelling conventions.

Chapter Thirteen, 'The language of choice,' discusses the role of 
English as a linguistic super-power.

There is a concise glossary of key terms at the end of the book. Each 
chapter concludes with study questions and selected references for 
further reading, which can be quite useful in the sociolinguistics 
classroom. In addition, students will find summaries of main points at 
the end of each chapter particularly helpful. Due to abundant 
examples of sociolinguistic phenomena in different language 
communities, the text is accessible even to a newcomer in the field; 
references to both classic and contemporary sociolinguistic research 
make this textbook a useful resource for anyone. The division 
between micro-choices (Part One), related to variationist 
sociolinguistics, and macro-choices (Part Two), dealing with sociology 
of language, works relatively well even though the distinction is not 
always easy to make and can be quite arbitrary. In fact, this distinction 
could have been made explicit in the introduction rather than in 
Chapter Seven.

While a textbook is not the default forum for the discussion of 
epistemological or theoretical problems of a discipline, the criticism of 
the notion of language in theoretical linguistics and the Western bias 
of certain sub-fields of sociolinguistics, language planning in 
particular, can be used to stimulate a lively discussion in class. On the 
other hand, the book does not tackle the essentialist vein of the entire 
sociolinguistic enterprise. For example, while the constructed, free-
floating nature of identities is elaborated to some extent, this is not 
taken into account when discussing, for instance, language and 
gender. To characterize 'sex' as 'a compulsory exercise, reproduction' 
and 'gender' as 'the fun of it, an art, a cultural achievement' is 
somewhat surprising indeed.

There is little discussion in this textbook and in sociolinguistics in 
general about the ways in which others interpret, acknowledge, and 
accept the choices people make when using language in order to be 
indexed in a particular way. While this reflects the fact that there are 
few studies of the topic, it also generates a few questions. Thus, if all 
language USE cannot be but a choice, the interpretation of linguistic, 
social, and political meanings is a choice, too. Indeed, if 
sociolinguistics studies social identities constructed in and through 
language, would it be possible to study the linguistic construction of 
sociolinguistic categories as well? After all, these categories appear to 
be based on the assumption that it is possible to interpret why and 
how people make choices governing their language use. Finally, could 
there be a place for a sociolinguistics of LANGUAGE which does not 
take for granted the unity of the sociolinguistic ideal speaker with 
monolithic intentions, for a sociolinguistics concentrating on the ways 
in which language in use, once it is brought into being by the socially 
contingent speaking subject, does things? 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Simo K. Määttä received his Ph.D. from the Department of French, 
University of California at Berkeley in May 2004. He teaches French 
Linguistics at the University of Tampere, Finland. Research interests: 
sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, translation studies, language 
ideologies.





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