This collection brings together several perspectives on language varieties defined according to their contexts of use--what are variously called registers, sublanguages, or genres. The volume highlights the importance of these central linguistic phenomena; it includes empirical analyses and linguistic descriptions, as well as explanations for existing patterns of variation and proposals for theoretical frameworks. The book treats languages in obsolescence and in their youth; it examines registers from languages from around the globe; and it offers several of the most complete studies of registers and register variation published to date, adopting both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.

The work of the linguist Charles A. Ferguson spans more than three decades, and is remarkable for having been consistently at the forefront of scholarship on the relationship between language and society. This volume collects his most influential and seminal papers, each having expanded the parameters of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Taken together, they cover a wide range of topics and issues, and, more importantly, reflect the intellectual progress of a founder of the sociolinguistic field. The volume is divided thematically into four sections, and an introduction by Thom Huebner outlines the evolution of Ferguson's ideas and the impact they have had on other scholars. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in the field of sociolinguistics.

A brand new edition of this flagship work, that provides detailed descriptions of important text varieties in English along with methodological techniques to carry out analyses.

Bloomsbury World Englishes offers a comprehensive and rigorous description of the facts, implications and contentious issues regarding the forms and functions of English in the world. International experts cover a diverse range of varieties and topics, offering a more accurate understanding of English across the globe and the various social contexts in which it plays a significant role. With volumes dedicated to research paradigms, language ideologies and pedagogies, the collection pushes the boundaries of the field to go beyond traditional descriptive paradigms and contribute to moving research agendas forward. Volume 1: Paradigms analyzes the ways in which we make sense of English as a global language, its many varieties and how these come into contact and interact with other languages. It moves the field beyond existing 'models' that are no longer sufficient to describe English(es) in the era of globalization.

Virtually unstudied until the 1980s, discourse markers have gone on to become a growth industry. Research on markers is central to comprehensive theories of the synchronic linguistic system as such, of the use of language in communication, and of language change. From the very beginning, linguists working on Romance languages have been at the forefront of research on discourse markers. Including among its contributors many of the foremost experts in the field, this volume not only offers substantial state-of-the-art introductions to the diverse facets of contemporary research on discourse markers, with a focus on Romance, but it achieves added value by including in each chapter original and previously unpublished results. The first part of the book addresses foundational issues: What are discourse markers? What is their relationship to other types of pragmatic markers? The second part considers discourse markers at different levels of linguistic description, in particular: their grammatical status, their semantics and pragmatics, their prosodic features, their positioning within discourse units. The third part outlines different approaches to the study of discourse markers, namely contrastive studies, corpus linguistics, discourse traditions, and historical linguistics. The fourth part explores discourse markers at the interface with central topics in linguistics, such as politeness, social variation, language acquisition and psycholinguistic processing. The final part focuses on discourse markers in each of the major Romance languages, namely French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and Romanian. The volume will be of interest to researchers and students working in the field of Romance studies, general linguists, pragmaticians, discourse analysts, educationalists, and psychologists.

The Romance languages offer a particularly fertile ground for the exploration of the relationship between language and society in different social contexts and communities. Focusing on a wide range of Romance languages – from national languages to minoritised varieties – this volume explores questions concerning linguistic diversity and multilingualism, language contact, medium and genre, variation and change. It will interest researchers and policy-makers alike.

The work of the linguist Charles A. Ferguson spans more than three decades, and is remarkable for having been consistently at the forefront of scholarship on the relationship between language and society. This volume collects his most influential and seminal papers, each having expanded the parameters of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Taken together, they cover a wide range of topics and issues, and, more importantly, reflect the intellectual progress of a founder of the sociolinguistic field. The volume is divided thematically into four sections, and an introduction by Thom Huebner outlines the evolution of Ferguson's ideas and the impact they have had on other scholars. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in the field of sociolinguistics.

This volume presents a sociolinguistic perspective on the history of the English language. Based on original empirical research, it discusses the social factors that promoted linguistic changes in earlier English, and the people who were the leading force behind them. The authors focus on the major grammatical developments that shaped the language in Tudor and Stuart times, the period that laid the foundations for modern Standard English. Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg adopt an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the extent to which sociolinguistic models and methods can be applied to the history of English.

In this work, a corpus-based stylistic study is used to explore two contemporary Mandarin Chinese translations of Don Quijote - those by Yang Jiang (1978) and Liu Jingsheng (1995).

Carol Myers-Scotton has edited a collection of essays that covers the choice of one style of English over another in everything from Bible translations to "surprise in poetry" to supervisor-worker interactions on the automobile assembly line. An important theme developed to varying degrees in these papers is the notion that speakers and writers, as rational actors, exploit the unmarked-marked opposition regarding audience expectations so as to convey messages of intentionality charged with social or psychological import.