Language, Society and Power: An Introduction

Language, Society and Power provides an accessible introduction to the study of language in a variety of social contexts. This book examines the ways language functions, how it influences the way we view society, and how it varies according to age, ethnicity, class, and gender. Readers are encouraged to consider whether representations of people and their language matter, explore how identity is constructed and performed, and examine the creative potential of language in the media, politics, and everyday talk. With updates and new international examples throughout, the sixth edition of this popular textbook features: Thoroughly revised chapters on politics and media to include topics such as environmentalism, the politics of consumer choice, injustice in legal systems, and the power of social media in political activism Expanded coverage of ongoing debates around fake news, gender fluidity and representation, and multilingualism Discussions of surveillance in relation to linguistic landscapes Examination of linguistic change due to COVID-19 A companion website which includes streamlined exercises, further reading, a 'who's who' of Twitter, and links to blogs and videos to support learning as students make their way through the book. Language, Society and Power assumes no linguistic background among readers and is a must-read for all students of English language and linguistics, media, communication, cultural studies, sociology, and psychology who are studying language and society for the first time.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Figures List of Images List of Tables Transcription Conventions Preface to the Sixth Edition Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Language? 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Why Study Language? 1.3 What Is Language? 1.3.1 Language: A System 1.3.2 Language: A System with Variation 1.3.3 The Potential to Create New Meanings 1.4 The ‘Rules’ of Language: Prescription Versus Description 1.5 Power 1.5.1 Ideology 1.6 ‘Political Correctness’ 1.7 Summary Further Reading Chapter 2 Language, Thought and Representation 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Language as a System of Representation 2.2.1 Different Kinds of Language 2.2.2 Signs and Structure 2.3 Linguistic Diversity 2.3.1 Semantics 2.3.2 Syntax 2.4 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 2.4.1 Linguistic Relativism and Determinism 2.4.2 Numbers, Things, and Animals 2.5 One Language, Many Worlds 2.6 A Model for Analysing Language 2.6.1 Lexical Choices 2.6.2 Transitivity 2.7 Summary Further Reading Chapter 3 Language and Politics 3.1 Introduction 3.2 What is ‘Politics’? 3.3 Politics and Ideology 3.4 Three Persuasive Strategies: Logos, Pathos, Ethos 3.5 Biscuits are Political?: Introducing Linguistic Tools 3.6 Climate Change and Political Discourse 3.7 Language, Ideology, and Metaphor 3.7.1 Student as Customer 3.8 Twitter and Political Agency 3.9 Silly Citizenship 3.9.1 Jorts the Cat 3.9.2 ‘K-Pop and TikTok 3.10 Summary Further Reading Chapter 4 Language and the Media 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Mass Media 4.3 The Changing Context 4.3.1 Structure 4.3.2 Who is Producing Content? 4.4 Manufacture of Consent 4.4.1 Filtering the Facts 4.5 News Values 4.5.1 Actors and Events 4.6 New News Values 4.7 Who is the Expert; Who is the Author? 4.8 Fake News 4.8.1 ‘Fake news’ as Delegitimising Accusation 4.8.2 Fabricated News Reports to Misinform 4.8.3 Fabricated News Reports to Entertain 4.8.4 Comedy News Shows 4.9 Summary Further Reading Chapter 5 Linguistic Landscapes 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Defining the Linguistic Landscape 5.2.1 Space and Meaning 5.2.2 Different Kinds of Signs 5.2.3 'Top-down' and 'Bottom-up' as a Continuum 5.3 Signs and Multilingualism and Power 5.3.1 Invisible Language 5.4 Signs and Ideology 5.5 Transgressive Signs: Graffiti 5.6 Surveillance 5.7 Online Landscapes 5.7.1 Twitter 5.7.2 Instagram 5.7.3 Memes 5.8 Summary Further Reading Chapter 6 Language and Gender 6.1 Introduction 6.2 What is Gender? 6.3 Inequality at the Lexical Level 6.3.1 Marked Terms 6.3.2 Semantic Derogation 6.3.3 Pronouns 6.4 Differences in Language Use: Doing Being a ‘Woman’ or A ‘Man’ 6.4.1 Tag Questions 6.5 Gossip 6.5.1 Gossip and Men 6.5.2 Features of Men’s Talk 6.6 Gender and Power 6.6.1 Do Women Talk More than Men? 6.6.2 Gender or Power? 6.6.3 Intersectionality 6.7 Gendered Talk: Performing Identity 6.7.1 Mate 6.7.2 Variation 6.8 Summary Further Reading Chapter 7 Language and Ethnicity 7.1 Introduction 7.2 What Do We Mean By ‘Ethnicity’? 7.3 Racism and Representations of Ethnicity 7.3.1 Representations of Race 7.3.2 Racism Online 7.3.3 Reclaiming Terms 7.4 Ethnicity and Language Variation 7.4.1 Ethnolect or Repertoire? 7.4.2 African American Language 7.5 Ethnicity and Identity 7.5.1 Situated Ethnicity 7.6 Consequences for Ethnolinguistic Repertoires 7.6.1 Australian Aboriginal English 7.6.2 Sociolinguistic Labour 7.9 Summary Further Reading Chapter 8 Language and Age 8.1 Introduction 8.2 What do We Mean by 'Age'? 8.3 Early Life Stage 8.3.1 Language Used to Talk to Children 8.4 Adolescent Life Stage 8.4.1 What Teenagers Do 8.4.2 Multiple Negation 8.4.3 ‘Like’ as a Discourse Marker 8.4.4 Changes to Morphology 8.5 Middle Life Stage 8.5.1 Thanks Across the Generations 8.6 Later Life Stage 8.6.1 Representations of Older People 8.6.2 Self-representation of Older People 8.6.3 Language Used to Talk to Older People 8.6.4 Learning to Use the Internet 8.7 The Creep of Ageism 8.7.1 OK Boomer and Bla, Bla, Bla 8.8 Summary Further Reading Chapter 9 Language, Class and Symbolic Capital 9.1 Introduction 9.2 What is Social Class? 9.3 Attitudes to Class 9.3.1 Social Class as Other 9.3.2 Representations of Social Class 9.3.3 Pittsburghese 9.4 Linguistic Variation 9.4.1 New York City 9.4.2 Norwich 9.4.3 Glasgow 9.5 Intersection of Social Class and Other Variables 9.5.1 Social Class and Gender 9.6 Social Networks 9.7 Communities of Practice 9.8 Symbolic Capital 9.9 Revising the British Social Class Model 9.9.1 Power and Access to Symbolic Capital 9.9.2 Capital in the Global South 9.10 Summary Further Reading Chapter 10 Global Englishes 10.1 Introduction 10.2 What Does Global English Mean? 10.3 Learning English 10.3.1 Two Models 10.3.2 ‘Lingua Franca Core’ 10.4 ‘Singlish’ 10.5 Indian English 10.6 Linguistic Marketplace 10.6.1 Call Centres and English 10.7 Linguistic Imperialism 10.8 What do Language Varieties Mean in the Global Context? 10.8.1 Language Repertoires 10.8.2 Discourse in Advertising and Linguistic Landscapes 10.9 Summary Further Reading Chapter 11 Projects 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Things to Bear in Mind with Data Collection 11.2.1 What is 'Data'? 11.2.2 Transcribing 11.2.3 Data Analysis 11.3 Projects Project 1 – Mini Dictionary Project 2 – Political Texts Project 3 – Your Own Many Voices Project 4 – Conversational Politics Project 5 – Expertise in the Media Project 6 – Representation of Gender Project 7 – Titles Around the World Project 8 – Identity Project 9 – Digital Detox Project 10 – Little Bits of Data Project 11 – Children’s Television Project 12 – Texts and Social Media Project 13 – Linguistic Landscapes Project 14 – Political Agency 11.4 Research Resources 11.4.1 Where to Find Published Research 11.4.2 Other Resources Further Reading Works Cited Index

About the Author :
Annabelle Mooney is Emerita Professor of Language and Society at the University of Roehampton, UK. Betsy Evans is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington, USA.

Review :
"This edition of Language, Society and Power is up to date with current developments in society that impact issues of power and ideology. It involves the reader – tutors and students alike – in an analysis of these developments, sucks them in to explore their in-ward understanding of language issues." – Ayo Amuda, University of South Wales, UK "Language, Society and Power contains a balanced and very accessible coverage of the core concepts of sociolinguistics, illustrated through carefully chosen and meticulously discussed data. It is a must for students and everyone interested in understanding and analysing how we use language in our societies." – Irene Theodoropoulou, Qatar University