The Social Art: Language and Its Uses / Edition 2

by Ronald K. MacAulay, Ronald Macaulay

Overview

The Social Art is an engagingly written, highly accessible tour through the world of languages. Macaulay uses jokes, anecdotes, quotations, and examples to introduce readers to the full range of current linguistic knowledge, covering in 35 chapters, topics like language acquisition, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, dialects, conversation, narrative, swearing, and many others.

In this revised and expanded second edition, Macaulay brings the book up to date with the last decade of progress in linguistics, adding more American examples, and updating bibliographies. Two new chapters have been added, on theories of language development and on the evolution of language. The Social Art is perfect for general readers and students who want to learn about what it is that linguists do.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195187960
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/02/2006
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Ronald K. S. Macaulay is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Pitzer College. He is the author of Language, Social Class and Education (1977), Locating Dialect in Discourse (1991), Standards and Variation in Urban Speech (1997), and Talk that Counts: Age, Gender, and Social Class Differences in Discourse (OUP, 2005). The first edition of The Social Art was published in 1995.

Editorial Reviews

Review of the previous edition: "To read Ronald Macaulay is to be party to a conversation with a thoroughly knowledgeable friend, in touch with current research, who neither talks down or above one's head, but shares. It is marvelously accessible and informative."—Dell Hymes, University of Virginia

Review of the previous edition: "As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world. ... Whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises. ... A delightful introduction to linguistics."—Booklist

Review of the previous edition: "[Macaulay] covers...just about every aspect of language you can imagine...[with] consummate, usually amusing examples of the topic at hand. ... He's a good synthesizer, citing interesting research."—The Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

Despite its academic flavor, this survey of language will entertain the general reader. Its 33 short chapters range from children's language acquisition to semantics, syntax, creoles and language around the world. Macaulay, a linguistics professor at Pitzer College in California, highlights unspoken rules of conversation, decodes the puffery of advertisements, considers the finer points of insults and swearing and explains how the interactive nature of language affects what we say and how we say it. Calling Standard English a ``nonregional dialect'' promulgated by an educated minority, he argues that it may not be superior to nonstandard dialects in its logic, regularity or beauty. He also disputes the popular ``linguistic relativity theory,'' finding insufficient evidence for its proponents' claim that people's thought processes are molded by the particular language they speak. (Mar.)

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