Ruth Wodak (ed.), Gender and discourse. (Sage studies in discourse.) London (UK) & Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage, 1997. Pp. ix, 303. Pb $27.95. Helga Kotthoff & Ruth Wodak (eds.), Communicating gender in context. (Pragmatics and beyond, n.s., 42.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1998. Pp. xxv, 424. Hb $114.00.

Abstract

These two collections of articles offer a spectrum of current work in the field of language and gender. Contributors to both volumes include some leading researchers in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis from Britain, America, and New Zealand; the Kotthoff & Wodak book also contains work by contributors from Germany, Sweden, Holland, and Austria. Despite the latter volume's stated aim of bridging the gap in scholarly awareness between Europe and the English-speaking world, we are in effect still dealing with work from a particular section of Europe, i.e. essentially northern European and Germanic countries. With the exception of one study of Spanish women's talk, southern and Mediterranean Europe are still largely absent from the language and gender research scene presented here.