This book explores the interaction between three key aspects of everyday life--language, writing, and mobility --with particular focus on their effects on language contact. While the book adopts an established view of language and society that is in keeping with the sociolinguistic paradigm developed in recent decades, it differs from earlier studies in that it assigns writing a central position. Sociolinguistics has long concentrated primarily on speech, but Florian Coulmas shows in this volume that the social importance of writing should not be disregarded: it is the most consequential technology ever invented; it suggests stability; and it defines borders. Linguistic studies have often emphasized that writing is external to language, but the discipline nevertheless owes its analytic categories to writing. Finally, the digital revolution has fundamentally changed communication patterns, transforming the social functions of writing and consequently also of language.

Language, Writing, and Mobility: A Sociological Perspective

Politics & Social Sciences

Coulmas, FLorian

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

This book provides an accessible account of the origins and conceptual foundations of language policy. Florian Coulmas discusses the influence of twenty intellectuals from medieval to modern times, and from a variety of cultures, who have taken issue with language, its use, development, and political potential. These 'guardians of language' range from renowned figures such as Dante, Noah Webster, and Gandhi, to less well-known individuals such as the Spanish grammarian Antonio de Nebrija and Senegalese politician and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor. Each chapter begins by providing background information on the scholar whose work is being reviewed and ends with a summary of his key thoughts on language in the form of an imaginary interview.

Guardians of Language: Twenty Voices Through History

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)

This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world. It begins with an overview of the multiplicity of human languages and their geographic distribution, before moving on to the key question of what multilingualism actually is and what is understood by terms such as 'mother tongue', 'native speaker', and 'speech community'. In the chapters that follow, Florian Coulmas systematically explores multilingualism with respect to the individual, institutions, cities, nations, and cyberspace. In each of these domains, the dynamics of language choice are undergoing changes as a result of economic, political, and cultural forces. Against this background, two chapters discuss the effects of linguistic diversity on the integration and separation of language and society, before a final chapter describes and assesses research methods for investigating multilingualism. Each chapter concludes with problems and questions for discussion, which place the topic in a real-world context. The book explores where, when, and why multilingualism came to be regarded as a problem, and why it presents a serious challenge for linguistic theory today. It provides the basic tools to analyse different kinds of multilingualism at both the individual and society level, and will be of interest to students of linguistics, sociology, education, and communication studies.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Identity has become one of the most widely used terms today, appearing in many different contexts. Anything and everything has an identity, and identity crises have become almost equally pervasive. Yet "identity" is extremely versatile, meaning different things to different people and in different scientific disciplines. To many its meaning seems self-evident, since its various uses share common features, so often the term is used without a definition of what, exactly, is meant by it. This provokes the core question: What exactly is identity? In this Very Short Introduction Florian Coulmas provides a survey of the many faces of the concept of identity, and discusses its significance and varied meanings in the fields of philosophy, sociology, and psychology, as well as politics and law. Tracing our concern with identity to its deep roots in Europe's intellectual history, individualism, and the felt need to draw borderlines, Coulmas identifies the most important features used to mark off individual and collective identities, and demonstrates why they are deemed important. He concludes with a glimpse at the many ways in which literature has engaged with problems of identity throughout history. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Identity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Philosophy

Population Decline and Ageing in Japan - The Social Consequences (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of one of the most pressing challenges facing Japan today: population decline and ageing.  It argues that social ageing is a phenomenon that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization and social modernization, bringing about changes in values, institutions, social structures, economic activity, technology and culture, and posing many challenges for the countries affected. Focusing on the experience of Japan, the author explores:  how Japan has recognized the emerging problems relatively early because during the past half century population ageing has been more rapid in Japan than in any other country how all of Japanese society is affected by social ageing, not just certain substructures and institutions, and explains its complex causes, describes the resulting challenges and analyses the solutions under consideration to deal with it  the nature of Japan’s population dynamics since 1920, and argues that Japan is rapidly moving in the direction of a ‘hyperaged society’ in which those sixty-five or older account for twenty-five per cent of the total population  the implications for family structures and other social networks, gender roles and employment patterns, health care and welfare provision, pension systems, immigration policy, consumer and voting behaviour and the cultural reactions and ramifications of social ageing.

Reference

Routledge

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of one of the most pressing challenges facing Japan today: population decline and ageing. It argues that social ageing is a phenomenon that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization and social modernization, bringing about changes in values, institutions, social structures, economic activity, technology and culture, and posing many challenges for the countries affected. Focusing on the experience of Japan, the author explores: <ul>
<li>how Japan has recognized the emerging problems relatively early because during the past half century population ageing has been more rapid in Japan than in any other country</li> <li>how all of Japanese society is affected by social ageing, not just certain substructures and institutions, and explains its complex causes, describes the resulting challenges and analyses the solutions under consideration to deal with it </li> <li>the nature of Japan’s population dynamics since 1920, and argues that Japan is rapidly moving in the direction of a ‘hyperaged society’ in which those sixty-five or older account for twenty-five per cent of the total population </li> <li>the implications for family structures and other social networks, gender roles and employment patterns, health care and welfare provision, pension systems, immigration policy, consumer and voting behaviour and the cultural reactions and ramifications of social ageing.</li>
</ul>

Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices

This accessible new textbook provides a clear introduction to sociolinguistics, the study of why we speak the way we do, and the social factors that influence our linguistic decisions. Topics covered include dialects, gender and age specific speech forms, professional jargons, diglossia, bilingualism, code-switching, pidgin languages, and language planning, all of which are unified by the common theme that speakers create their language by making choices. The volume draws on linguistic variation from an extensive range of societies and their languages.

Cambridge University Press

Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

The problem of reducing language to writing and conversely that of interpreting written signs as language has been resolved through the development of different writing systems. This illustrated textbook introduces the major writing systems of the world (from cuneiform to English spelling) and analyzes their structure and function. It includes a review of the history of writing and a discussion of the literate mind and society.

Words, Language & Grammar

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coulmas, FLorian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Coulmas, FLorian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coulmas, FLorian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Language, Writing, and Mobility: A Sociological Perspective

Guardians of Language: Twenty Voices Through History

An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)

An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)

Identity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Population Decline and Ageing in Japan - The Social Consequences (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)

Population Decline and Ageing in Japan - The Social Consequences (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)

Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices

Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)