35.1402, Review: The Social Life of Words: Wright (2022)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-1402. Tue May 07 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.1402, Review: The Social Life of Words: Wright (2022)

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Date: 07-May-2024
From: Neda Chepinchikj [neda.cepincic at gmail.com]
Subject: Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics: Wright (2022)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.29

AUTHOR: Laura Wright
TITLE: The Social Life of Words
SUBTITLE: A Historical Approach
SERIES TITLE: Language in Society
PUBLISHER: Wiley
YEAR: 2022

REVIEWER: Neda Chepinchikj

SUMMARY

The Social Life of Words: A Historical Approach, by Laura Wright, is a
study in lexical sociolinguistics from a historical perspective. The
author traces the historical origins and social developments of a
number of English words, thereby putting into effect the various
methodologies employed in the area of lexical sociolinguistics. This
area, which belongs to historical sociolinguistics, investigates “the
circumstances in which a word came into being, how and where it
spread, who used it, and when and how those circumstances changed”
(Wright, 2023, p. 4). The study relies on various databases and
English language dictionaries, as well as on literary works,
newspapers, private letters, diaries, courtroom testimonies,
biographies, and archives of diverse sorts. Thus, more than anything
else, this volume focuses on diachronic exploration of certain
lexemes.

The organisation of the book follows one theoretical, conceptual, or
methodological approach per chapter and there are ten chapters in
total. The last chapter focuses on future directions in lexical
sociolinguistics. Furthermore, all chapters follow the same order,
where they start by defining and describing the theory, concept,
approach, or method. Then, the relevant literature on the subject is
outlined, followed by application to the historical sociolinguistic
development of the words discussed and a summary of the chapter at the
end. The author also poses a number of research questions at the
beginning of each chapter, addresses them in the discussion, and
concludes by presenting the answers to those questions in the
chapter’s summary.

Wright examines the evolution of her chosen lexemes through a variety
of theories, methods, and approaches, those being: social networks,
communities of practice, polysemy, onomasiology, stereotypes, language
regard and lexical influencers, indexicality and enregisterment,
spatial spread, and lexical appropriation. She also applies the
various theories and methods to a select number of words and/or
expressions (between two and four per chapter). Thus, the first
chapter on the social networks theory focuses on two expressions
(Swiss waiter and sosison vo land), which are historically examined
from the perspective of two different networks of speakers’
relationships in mid-19th and 18th century England. Etna and laugh!
are examined in the second chapter through the communities of practice
approach, which is concerned with the motivations of people’s
networks. Thus, from originally being a brand name, the meaning of
Etna developed into a generic one for a type of portable spirit-lamp
or kettle.

Chapter 3 traces the polysemy of two words – maroon and popcorn.
Through the historical investigation of these words, we learn that
they have developed differently and have come to mean different things
in Britain and America. Moreover, they have also been associated with
different meanings among different population groups on the two
continents. In the following chapter, direction and address are
discussed as two words in the same onomasiological set, where this
term refers to a set of similar words with the same or similar meaning
used to express a specific concept and available in a given language
at a given time. The author then evidences their different
associations of use in terms of the social variable of class.

Chapter 5 traces the prototypical and stereotypical connotations of a
few words: goss, goodwill, porridge, and the proper names Fido and
Rover. The discussion here indicates the usefulness of the theory of
stereotypes as social entities when investigating the historical
development of words because it also looks at the words’ social use at
various points in time. From the prototypical meanings of a brand name
for small souvenirs (Goss), contracts for prostitution (goodwill),
food cooked in a pot and also a hotchpotch (porridge), dog’s names
(Fido, Rover), these words came to be stereotypically associated with
meanings of ordinariness, criminality and slave names, respectively.

In Chapter 6, we learn about the use of café and restaurant and their
historical development through the approach of language regard and
lexical influencers. Wright applies this approach to discover the
superiority in the aforementioned terms over others in the same
onomasiological set and how speakers abandoned their local variants
for the ones that they perceived as more desirable. The influence of
French cafés and restaurants in London’s Haymarket in the 19th century
is associated with the popularity of these words and their subsequent
domination over the local variants at the time.

The focus of Chapter 7 is on indexicality and enregisterment as
methods used in lexical sociolinguistics. In this particular case, the
author investigates the words Drage, tinned salmon, and the expression
rather! through the lens of this method. The way that indexicality and
enregisterment work is that particular words and expressions that are
unique to a group of speakers become noticed by them as symbolic of
their particular social variables. These words and expressions can
further be noticed by outsiders as representative of the insider
group, become widely known and then used to caricature the insider
group of speakers. Thus, the aforementioned words and expressions have
all become indexical of various social classes in the UK and spread
around as associations of those classes.

Another method that Wright uses in her research is spatial spread or
geolinguistics, which studies language use in terms of its geography
as well as its social context. She examines the spatial spread
regarding both physical and symbolic representation of spaces and the
spatial practices among language users of the expressions monkey
parade, shopping parade, and Sunnyside, which is used as a name for
houses. The discussion indicates that space is a key factor to be
taken into account when analysing language change over time.

Lexical appropriation is the last concept that Wright examines and
applies to a number of words and expressions, such as into, baggonet,
and burgoo. This method signifies borrowing which is undertaken for
social reasons, where the borrowed lexemes retain their social
connotations.

EVALUATION

The present volume exudes a wealth of knowledge of how lexis evolves
historically and of all the various features and circumstances
involved in that process. The depth and complexity of the research the
author has undertaken is remarkable and will be invaluable to anyone
who pursues historical linguistics, particularly the historical
development of words through a social lens. While the topic is
scholarly, the style is accessible to language enthusiasts and the
general public. This makes the book an enjoyable read, in addition to
its obvious academic value, since the author takes the reader on a
journey of discovery by narrating the particular stories of each and
every word and expression examined in the study.

The author approaches the topic from a range of perspectives, each of
which receives a dedicated chapter and is represented by a few
concepts and methods described above. She also poses research
questions at the start of each chapter and revisits them in the
conclusion thereof. The goals and scope of the volume are clearly
stated in the introductory chapter and the author successfully meets
them. We learn that historical sociolinguists face challenges that
their synchronic colleagues do not and that these are mainly connected
to the accessibility of sources and the difficulty of putting all the
various pieces together in a mosaic of meaning that paints a picture
of the social life of words from the moment of their coming into
existence to the present. These pieces are diverse details about the
people, places, circumstances, behaviours, habits, practices, and a
lot more—details which are not easy to uncover. However, Wright
manages to substantially illustrate and evidence the sociolinguistic
changes of the lexemes she investigates and to skillfully put together
a narrative that captures the ‘life-story’ of those words and
expressions. At times these are more detailed, and at other times the
evidence is sparser, but still clearly indicated.

The last chapter outlines some future directions and identifies areas
of interest for further research into lexical sociolinguistics. The
author makes suggestions about where to start when conducting research
into this field and points out (not just in this final chapter but
throughout the book) previous scholarship that is either foundational
or recent in the area of lexical sociolinguistics. Thus, Wright
presents a valuable literature review of the field and simultaneously
points to some practical approaches to investigating lexemes. All this
reveals a plethora of words, collocations, and expressions to research
and questions to pose and investigate.

While this monograph has a historical orientation to the study of
vocabulary, its perspective is social and, as such, it benefits not
only historical linguistics but also sociolinguistics in general, as
well as lexicology. The study focuses exclusively on lexis in the
English language (both British and American varieties), but it may be
useful in the investigation of other languages and their lexes,
especially those that have historically been in close spatial and
social contact with English. Even though this is not explicitly
mentioned in the book, some future studies may certainly benefit from
cross-linguistic examination of the social developments of the
word-stock in other languages.

REFERENCES

Wright, L. (2023). The social life of words: A historical approach.
Wiley Blackwell.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr Neda Chepinchikj is a linguist and an educator. She has taught
linguistics and Academic English subjects at a number of universities
in Australia and overseas. Her research interests include
telecinematic discourse, multimodal conversation analysis, language
and gender and sociolinguistics and she has published her research in
renowned journals and in a book. She is an Associate Fellow with the
UK Advance Academy in Higher Education and works at the University of
New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.



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