Books in the Advances in Sociolinguistics series

A historically, spatially and methodologically rich sub-field of sociolinguistics, Linguistic Landscapes (LL) is a rapidly evolving area of research and study. With contributions by an international team of experts from the USA, Europe, the UK, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong and Colombia, this volume is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary account of the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in this area. It covers both the conceptual tools and methodologies used to define and question, and case studies of real-world phenomena to showcase Linguistic Landscapes methods in action.Divided into four parts, chapters bring into dialogue themes relating to reterritorialization practices and the productive nature of boundaries and spaces. This book considers the contemporary challenges facing the field, the politics and processes of identifying and demarcating 'sites of research', and the ethics and pedagogical applications of LL research.With comprehensive lists of further reading, extended discussion questions and suggestions for independent research at the end of each chapter, this is an essential reference work for all LL scholars and students who wish to keep abreast of the current state of the art.

Demonstrating the range of linguistic and semiotic practices which are deployed in the construction of war memory, The Burden of Traumascapes investigates the discourses of remembering that are enculturated in the everyday lives of the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Maida Kosatica explores how the memory and narratives of the Bosnian War (1992-5) convey and renegotiate historical acts of violence in quite ordinary, banal ways and extend the war into the present day. Reintroducing the concept of 'traumascapes', this book demonstrates that semiotic landscapes are marked by traumatic legacies of violence in which the sense of trauma establishes its meaning through the discourses of remembering. In this context, this book argues that discourses of remembering, whether constructed in physical or virtual spaces, stem simultaneously from personal and collective needs to follow moral orders and responsibility, as well as from political, pedagogical and economic demands.

Linguistic landscapes can play an important role in educating individuals beyond formal pedagogical environments. This book argues that anywhere can be a space for people to learn from displayed texts, images, and other communicated signs, and consequently a space where teachable cultural moments are created. Following language learning trajectories that 'exit through the language classroom' into city streets, public offices, museums and monuments, this volume presents innovative work demonstrating that anyone can learn from the linguistic landscape that surrounds them. Offering a bridge between theoretical research and practical application, chapters consider how we make sense of places by understanding how the landscape is used to express, claim and contest identities and ideologies. In this way, Linguistic Landscapes Beyond the Language Classroom highlights the unexpected potential of the informal settings for learning and for teachers to expand their students' intercultural experience.

Linguistic landscapes can play an important role in educating individuals beyond formal pedagogical environments. This book argues that anywhere can be a space for people to learn from displayed texts, images, and other communicated signs, and consequently a space where teachable cultural moments are created. Following language learning trajectories that 'exit through the language classroom' into city streets, public offices, museums and monuments, this volume presents innovative work demonstrating that anyone can learn from the linguistic landscape that surrounds them. Offering a bridge between theoretical research and practical application, chapters consider how we make sense of places by understanding how the landscape is used to express, claim and contest identities and ideologies. In this way, Linguistic Landscapes Beyond the Language Classroom highlights the unexpected potential of the informal settings for learning and for teachers to expand their students' intercultural experience.

Based on author's thesis (doctoral - University of Melbourne and University of Birmingham, 2013) issued under title: Becoming British: a migrant's journey

Charts the connections between the language of journalism in England and its social impact on audiences and social and political debates from the first emergence of periodical publications in the seventeenth century to the present day.

How language shapes and is shaped by identity is a key topic within sociolinguistics. An individual's identity is constituted through a variety of different factors, including the social, linguistic, cultural and ethnic contexts. This book looks at these issues against the theoretical background of the sociology of knowledge, and ethnolinguistics.

Deals with linguistic minorities and social change, seen through the lens of a linguistic minority school, meeting the challenges of globalization. Through an examination of the language practices in the daily life of a minority language school, this work explores issues such as nationalism, language policy, bilingualism, identity, and more.

Originally published as the author's doctoral thesis (University of Southampton) under the title Language, discourse and ideology: the Real Academia Espaanola and the standardisation of Spanish. 2008.

Examines the role of nationalism, heritage, culture, identity negotiation, ideology and power in multilingualism. This title offers responses from the authors' investigations of the language practices of multilingual young people and their teaching experiences in complementary schools in four cities in England.

A historically, spatially and methodologically rich sub-field of sociolinguistics, Linguistic Landscapes (LL) is a rapidly evolving area of research and study. With contributions by an international team of experts from the USA, Europe, the UK, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong and Colombia, this volume is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary account of the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in this area. It covers both the conceptual tools and methodologies used to define and question, and case studies of real-world phenomena to showcase Linguistic Landscapes methods in action.Divided into four parts, chapters bring into dialogue themes relating to reterritorialization practices and the productive nature of boundaries and spaces. This book considers the contemporary challenges facing the field, the politics and processes of identifying and demarcating 'sites of research', and the ethics and pedagogical applications of LL research.With comprehensive lists of further reading, extended discussion questions and suggestions for independent research at the end of each chapter, this is an essential reference work for all LL scholars and students who wish to keep abreast of the current state of the art.

This book examines the powerful role of writing in society. The invention of writing, independently at various places and times in history, always stood at the cradle of powerful civilizations. It is impossible to imagine modern life without writing. As individuals and social groups we hold high expectations of its potential for societal and personal development. Globally, huge resources have been and are being invested in promoting literacy worldwide. So what could possibly be tyrannical about writing?The title is inspired by Ferdinand de Saussure''s argument against writing as an object of linguistic research and what he called la tyrannie de la lettre. His critique denounced writing as an imperfect, distorted image of speech that obscures our view of language and its structure. The chapters of the book, written by experts in language and literacy studies, go beyond this and explore tyrannical aspects of writing in society through history and around the world: from Medieval Novgorod, the European Renaissance and 19th-century France and Germany over colonial Sudan to postcolonial Sri Lanka and Senegal and present-day Hong Kong and Central China to the Netherlands and Spain. The metaphor of ''tyranny of writing'' serves as a heuristic for exploring ideologies of language and literacy in culture and society and tensions and contradictions between the written and the spoken word.

Drawing on a range of disciplines from within the humanities and social sciences, Multilingual Memories addresses questions of remembering and forgetting from an explicitly multilingual perspective. From a museum at Victoria Falls in Zambia to a Japanese-American internment in Arkansas, this book probes how the medium of the communication of memories affirms social orders across the globe.Applying linguistic landscape approaches to a wide variety of monuments and memorials from around the world, this book identifies how multilingualism (and its absence) contributes to the inevitable partiality of public memorials. Using a number of different methods, including multimodal discourse analysis, code preferences, interaction orders, and indexicality, the chapters explore how memorials have the potential to erase linguistic diversity as much as they can entextualize multilingualism. With examples from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America, this volume also examines the extent to which multilingual memories legitimize not only specific discourses but also individuals, particular communities, and ethno-linguistic groups - often to the detriment of others.

Offers students with an overview of the field of institutional discourse, introducing the key theorists including Foucault, Habermas, Weber, Giddens, Althusser and Gramsci, among others. This book covers a range of institutional contexts including the workplace, the media, prison, courtroom and academia.

At the heart of this volume lies an exploration of what actually happens to languages and their users when cultures come into contact. What actions do supra-national institutions, nation states, communities and individuals take in response to questions raised by the increasingly diverse forms of migration experienced in a globalized world? The volume reveals the profound impact that decisions made at national and international level can have on the lives of the individual migrant, language student, or speech community. Equally, it evaluates the broader ramifications of actions taken by migrant communities and individual language learners around issues of language learning, language maintenance and intercultural contact. Reflecting Jan Blommaert''s assertion that in a world shaped by globalization, what is needed is ''a theory of language in society... of changing language in a changing society'', this volume argues that researchers must increasingly seek diverse methodological approaches if they are to do justice to the diversity of experience and response they encounter.

An analysis of the linguistic issues surrounding civic integration and citizenship in nation states across the world. It addresses the need to develop a conceptual and theoretical basis for language testing to enable widespread discussion of this theme and the concomitant linguistic and cultural requirements.

Presents a series of geographically diverse case studies that examine various issues involved in the study of urban African languages. This book focuses on theoretical issues in the study of African urban languages, exploring the outcomes of intense multilingualism and also the ways in which urban dwellers form their speech communities.

Explores the relationship between language ideologies and media discourse, together with the methods and techniques required for the analysis of this relationship. This book also places emphasis on television and new-media texts, incorporating and expanding upon theoretical insights into visual communication and multimodal discourse analysis.

Offers a look at how landscape generates meaning. This title combines three major areas of scholarly interest each concerned with central dimensions of contemporary life: language and visual discourse, spatial practices, and also the changes bought about by global capitalism and mediatization.

Part of the "Advances in Sociolinguistics" series, this work examines the ways in which the media represents language related issues, and also looks at how the media's use of language is central to the construction of what people think language is, could or ought to be like.