Sociolinguistics

by Bernard Spolsky

Book Overview

Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which various groups of people use language. This book provides a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the field. It explores how sociolinguistics is linked to other disciplines such as history, politics and gender studies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0194372111
• ISBN13: 9780194372114
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

excellent coverage of the field

Like the other books in the "Oxford Introduction to Language Study" series this book aims to provide a "brief but comprehensive introduction" (blurb) to its topic. Generally, Spolsky suceeds admirably: he provides a dense but still easily readable account which can be used as a first introduction to the field but also to recapitulate the most important areas of sociolinguistics. As usual, the book contains a survey of key concepts (only 80 pages!), short readings from other relevant works and a selection of annotated references.However, readers should be warned that the book is (because it is so short) necessarily rather dense. I regard this as positive, though. I'd rather read 70 pages than 300 with the same amount of information!