Why have 1500 separate languages developed in the Pacific region? Why do Danes understand Norwegians better than Norwegians understand Danish? Is Ebonics a language or a dialect? Linguistics tends to ignore the relationship between languages and the societies in which they are spoken, while sociology generally overlooks the role of language in the constitution of society. In this book Suzanne Romaine provides a clear, lively, and accessible introduction to the field of sociolinguistics and emphasizes the constant interaction between society and language. She shows how our linguistic choices are motivated by social factors, and how certain ways of speaking come to be vested with symbolic value, drawing from evidence from studies of cultures and languages all over the world. This new edition incorporates new material on current issues in the study of gender as well as other topics such as the linguistic dimension to the ethnic conflict in the Balkans, and the controversy over Ebonics in the United States.

为什么在太平洋地区发展了1500种独立的语言？为什么丹麦人理解挪威人比挪威人理解丹麦人更好？Ebonics是一种语言还是一种方言？语言学往往忽视了语言与使用这些语言的社会之间的关系，而社会学则普遍忽视了语言在社会构成中的作用。在这本书中，苏珊娜-罗曼对社会语言学领域进行了清晰、生动、易懂的介绍，并强调了社会与语言之间的不断互动。她展示了我们的语言选择是如何被社会因素所驱动的，以及某些说话方式是如何被赋予象征性价值的，她从世界各地的文化和语言研究中汲取证据。本书的新版本纳入了关于性别研究中的当前问题以及其他主题的新材料，如巴尔干地区民族冲突的语言层面，以及美国对Ebonics的争议。