Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford (eds.), Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century

Extract

Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford (eds.), Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xiii, 502. Hb $85.00.

Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century, edited by Edward Finegan and John R. Rickford, consists of 26 articles commissioned from prominent language scholars. The collection offers brief chapters covering a wide variety of issues relevant to the sociolinguistic situation of the 21st-century United States. The chapters are organized into three sections: Part 1, “American English,” Part 2, “Other language varieties,” and Part 3, “The sociolinguistic situation.” The editors hope that the volume's “perspectives will launch inquiries into the topics of interest among student readers, policy makers, and the educated public” (p. xviii). The primary intended audience seems to be undergraduate students who have some background in linguistics. However, despite some use of IPA and a small amount of field-specific terminology, the editors and contributors have created a volume that is accessible to a wider audience that includes the general public.