This is a completely updated and expanded second edition of Language, Society and Power. Lively and accessible, it looks at the ways in which language functions, how it influences thought and how it varies according to age, ethnicity, class and gender. How can a language reflect the status of children and older people? Do men and women talk differently? How can our use of language mark our ethnic identity? The book also looks at language use in politics and the media and examines how language affects and constructs our identities, exploring notions of correctness and attitudes towards language use.
This is the first book to collect research on game-theoretic tools in the analysis of language with particular reference to semantics and pragmatics. Games are significant, because they pertain equally to pragmatics and semantics of natural language. The book provides an overview of the variety of ways in which game theory is used in the analysis of linguistic meaning and shows how games arise in pragmatic as well as semantic investigations. The book is a balanced combination of philosophical, linguistic, logical and mathematical argumentation.
The book has an introductory and a concluding chapter, written by the editor, to give a gentle introduction to the topics covered in the book and to provide wider conclusions and prospects arising from the individual essays.
The starting point for this comparative study on the role of English within the media worlds of European youth is the recognition of the increasing importance of communication with peoples from other cultures and countries.
Within the European Union (EU), English has a special role in this regard. While EU policy promotes all languages spoken in member states, and although English is not the most frequently spoken first language, it is the language two Europeans are most likely to use to make themselves understood. This lingua franca phenomenon occurs not only in the fields of science and technology, but also in business and everyday, personal interactions. The media, which plays an important role in intercultural communication, serves as a cultural forum, and both creates culture and transmits representations of other cultures. Its offerings are often highly internationalized, especially in pop culture, films, TV series, and variety shows, which exercise great influence on cultural and linguistic issues in the multilingual, multicultural EU.
The series reprints, updating where necessary, articles from Current Issues in Language Planning in area-specific volumes for the benefit of area specialists interested in language planning and policy.
Language Planning And Policy In Europe: Vol. 1: Hungary, Finland and Sweden. Language Planning And Policy In Europe: Vol. 2: The Czech Repubic, The European Union and Northern Ireland. Language Planning And Policy In Europe: Vol. 3: The Baltic States, Ireland and Italy
The history of "language teaching" is shot through with methods and approaches to language learning - most recently with "communicative language teaching" - but this book demonstrates that a more differentiated and richer understanding of learning a foreign language is both necessary and desirable. Languages and cultures are interlinked and interdependent and their teaching and learning should be too.
