What Is Sociolinguistics?

How is our language affected by our ethnicity, gender, and region? How are our conversations and other interactions structured? How does society view and regulate language? How do we use language to present ourselves to others? In this revised and updated second edition of the popular What Is Sociolinguistics? Gerard Van Herk explores these and other intriguing questions about language, how we use it, and its relationships to society. Van Herk guides the reader on a tour through the major issues that define the field, including region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, at the same time exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, cult…