Talk:Sociolinguistics/Introduction

Textbook Review: Language and Society

Research The author carefully selected sources that pertain to the subject matter. Although the sources are few in number, they provide a lot of scientific evidence to support each section of the chapter. The author selected both articles and books, providing well rounded evidence to support the chapter. When revising the chapter, I suggest that the author focuses on finding some current articles to include in the chapter. Many of the sources in this chapter are out of date (1996, 1989, 1990 etc). Because society is constantly changing, I think it is important to report the most up to date information. I conducted a brief literature review on the topic and did note that there is not a lot of published research in this area. An interesting area of research that you may want to investigate when looking for current literature is “sociolinguistics”. See link:

Organization The headings and subheadings that were selected divide the chapter in a logical manner. This makes the development of the chapter and each subtopic very clear to the reader from the outset. The subheadings clearly indicate the content of that section of the chapter and provide a well-rounded description of the topic. I also liked the inclusion of a table. This helps to break up the text and provides a good summary of the results of Well’s study. If possible, I would suggest that the table is enlarged. Even when opened in another screen I found that the text was too small to read. Answers Questions The chapter does an excellent job of using research to support and explain concepts. The topics of slang, taboo and sexual language are well-presented. To improve on the content of the chapter, I would recommend adding some information about the role of language in society from a more general perspective, before you focus in on the topics of slang, taboo, etc. history of taboo words. In the section on the history of taboo words, I think that you should include a few more examples of taboo. The explanation of history skips from biblical times to 1966; I think it would be useful to explain the progression in a bit more detail.

Writing Style This chapter is well written. The writing style is sophisticated, yet very logical and easy to follow. I liked the use of numbered lists within the text. These make the text easier to understand. I did not note any grammatical or spelling mistakes. The only area of the text that I would suggest further revision to is the first few sentences. I found the sentence structure of these paragraphs to be a bit confusing. I would also verify the word count of the chapter (min 2500 words).

Structure I would suggest that you re-work the introduction and/or body of the chapter to match the outline that you present in the introduction. The introduction says that the chapter will discuss how “psychological, social and affective meaning are related to one’s cultural lexicon”. However, this is not touched on in the chapter. I would suggest that you add a paragraph with more general information re: language and society if you keep the introduction as it is current written. If do you not add another section, I would suggest rewriting the last section of the introduction so that it is clear that your chapter will focus on slang, sexual language and taboo. I am unsure if this would be appropriate for the wiki format, but I think that it would be useful to include a conclusion or summary paragraph to wrap up the chapter. Arichter 21:35, 20 February 2011 (UTC)