Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices

This accessible new textbook provides a clear introduction to sociolinguistics, the study of why we speak the way we do, and the social factors that influence our linguistic decisions. Topics covered include dialects, gender and age specific speech forms, professional jargons, diglossia, bilingualism, code-switching, pidgin languages, and language planning, all of which are unified by the common theme that speakers create their language by making choices. The volume draws on linguistic variation from an extensive range of societies and their languages.