This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Downes' textbook is an accessible introduction to the social aspects of language and their various explanations. Topics covered include domains of language use, language change, code-switching, speech as social action, and the nature of meaning and understanding. This second edition includes an analysis of language standardisation, language conflict and planning.
Acknowledgements; 1. Linguistics and sociolinguistics; 2. A tapestry in space and time; 3. Language varieties: processes and problems; 4. Discovering the structure in variation; 5. Rhoticity; 6. At the intersection of social factors; 7. Change, meaning and acts of identity; 8. The discourse of social life; 9. Communication: words and world; 10. Action and critique; 11. Language and social explanation; Further reading; References; Index.
