Shifting Languages

by J. Joseph Errington

Overview

Until recently, Indonesian, the national language of a vast, plural nation state, was spoken by very few of the Javanese who live in south-central Java. But the national language is now being learned, along with a national identity, and is the key vehicle for modernity and progress in these communities. Errington has written a fascinating account of the role of language in radical social transformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521632676
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/10/1998
Series:	Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language , #19
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. A city, two hamlets, and the stage; 3. Speech styles, hierarchies and communities; 4. National development, national language; 5. Public language and authority; 6. Interactional and referential identities; 7. Language contact and language salad; 8. Speech modelling; 9. Shifting styles and the modelling of internal states; 10. Javanese-Indonesian code-switching; 11. Shifting perspectives.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a major contribution that shows how such work can be done. It succeeds as a fully realized study of socially, culturally, and politically grounded language phenomena. This rich accomplishment is itself the very best argument for Errington's analytic position." Language in Society

"This book is a major contribution that shows how such work can be done. It succeeds as a fully realized study of socially, culturally, and politically grounded language phenomena. This rich accomplishment is itself the very best argument for Errington's analytic position." Language in Society

From the Publisher