Signs of Difference

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-108-49189-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 326 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 633 g

How are peoples' ideas about languages, ways of speaking and expressive styles shaped by their social positions and values? How is difference, in language and in social life, made - and unmade? How and why are some differences persuasive as the basis for action, while other differences are ignored or erased? Written by two recognised authorities on language and culture, this book argues that ideological work of all kinds is fundamentally communicative, and that social positions, projects and historical moments influence, and are influenced by, people's ideas about communicative practices. Neither true nor false, ideologies are positioned and partial visions of the world, relying on comparison and perspective; they exploit differences in expressive features - linguistic and otherwise - to construct convincing stereotypes of people, spaces and activities. Using detailed ethnographic, historical and contemporary examples, this outstanding book shows readers how to analyse ideological work semiotically.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gal, Susan

Irvine, Judith T.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue: questions and exhibits; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Ethnography: 1. Wolof in Senegal; 2. German-Hungarians in Hungary; Part II. Semiotics: 3. Ingredients: signs, conjectures, perspectives; 4. Comparison: the semiotics of differentiation; 5. Dynamics of change in differentiation; Part III. Sites: 6. Situating ideological work; 7. Among and between sites; 8. Scales and scale-making: connecting sites; Part IV. Pasts: 9. Library to field: ideologies in nineteenth-century linguistic research; Coda: avenues of inquiry.

Über Autor(innen)

Irvine, Judith T.
Judith T. Irvine is Edward Sapir Collegiate Professor of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Author of many articles and chapters in linguistic anthropology, she is co-editor with Jane H. Hill of Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse (1993); co-editor with Regna Darnell et al. of the Collected Works of Edward Sapir (1999) and Associate Editor of the journal Language in Society.

Gal, Susan
Susan Gal is Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. She is author of Language Shift (1979) and The Politics of Language (in Hungarian, 2018), as well as co-author with Gail Kligman of Politics of Gender after Socialism (2000) and co-editor with Kathryn Woolard of Languages and Publics: The Making of Authority (2001).