Although courts are urging linguistic sensitivity, linguistic geographers and sociolinguists are providing evidence on linguistic variety. (RL)

Discusses the origins of Soviet sociolinguistics and suggests that the historical significance of the reception and reinterpretation of these ideas is considerable, leading to a reconsideration of the origins of sociolinguistics and the relationship between Marxism and the language sciences in the early years of the Soviet Union. (Author/VWL)

Evaluates ways speaker agency has been discussed by linguists over the last two decades and reviews the explanatory status of traditional "belief-desire" models of action in light of evolutionary, neuropsychological, and sociological contributions to the question of human agency. Considering the definition of language as a collective…

Examines literacy as a discourse of power as it applies to linguistic minorities in this theoretical article. Literacy needs to be redefined for librarians to be able to provide people whose languages are not the dominant or official ones in society with appropriate literacy services. Contains 51 references. (Author/LRW)

Explores the effects of the race of the interviewer on data derived from sociolinguistic fieldwork. Particular focus is on the potentially differing effects of white and African-American fieldworkers on interviews with African-American interviewees. (Author/VWL)

Discusses three positions regarding the definition of sociolinguistic theory: (1) sociolinguistic theory is proper linguistic theory; (2) sociolinguistic theory is an accumulation of mini-theories; and (3) sociolinguistic theory as social theory. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the role that Sociolinguistics should play with respect to the Ebonics debate in the United States. Argues that the fundamental perspective Sociolinguistics has taken with respect to this issue is sound, namely that Ebonics like any other linguistic variety is just as rule-governed and systematic. (Author/VWL)

Reviews the following books: "The Politics of Writing," (Romy Clark, Roz Ivanic); "Literacy in Society," (Ruqaiya Hasan, Geoff Williams); "Text, Role, and Context: Developing Academic Literacies" (Ann M. Johns); "Changing Literacies" by (Colin Lankshear with James Paul Gee, Michele Knobel, Chris Searle); and…

In response to two essays by Toury and Hermans on translation and norms, this paper takes issue with certain contentions from Toury's essay. Examines the grounds for a general theory of translation, discusses what translation is, presents a general theory of translation, and describes the chasm between professional and expectancy norms. (SM)

This article reports on a crosslinguistic comparative study of the processing of Japanese relative clauses (RCs) by Chinese-, Sinhalese-, Vietnamese-, Thai-, and Indonesian-speaking second language (L2) learners. A robust finding in studies on the acquisition of RCs in L2 English and other European languages is that subject-gap RCs are easier than…

Of the 300 or so native languages once spoken in North America, only about 150 are still spoken--and the majority of those have just a handful of mostly elderly speakers. For most Native American languages, colleges and universities are their last great hope, if not their final resting place. People at a number of institutions across the country…

In this article, the authors briefly describe key issues central to what Spring (2007) refers to as the "industrial-consumer paradigm" and the role of English as the global language characterized by what Harvey (1990) called "time and space compression." The authors also comment and provide a critique of some of its primary…

A significant body of research has examined the reasons behind high minority collegiate attrition. All of this work has contributed to our understanding of the unique challenges minority and first generation college students face in the difficult transition to the often new culture that is the college experience. One area that has gone virtually…

Language shift is the process by which a speech community in a contact situation (i.e. consisting of bilingual speakers) gradually stops using one of its two languages in favor of the other. The causal factors of language shift are generally considered to be social, and researchers have focused on speakers' attitudes (both explicit and unstated)…

The strabismus conception of masculinity and power with its manipulation as reflected in the consequences of actions endorsed and demonstrated by leaders, followers, citizens as individuals and groups at different times in the past, and present has been a major source of the seemingly quiescence and underdevelopment in Africa. Masculinity has…