Leon Rappoport, Punchlines: The case for racial, ethnic, and gender humor. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. Pp. xv, 181. Hb $44.95.

Written in a student-friendly style, Punchlines examines the state and development of racial, ethnic, and gender humor in the contemporary United States. The social psychologist Leon Rappoport's main objective is to save the reputation of this kind of humor from its “politically correct” critics. Specifically, Rappoport sets out to debunk two pieces of criticism: that this type of humor is inherently prejudiced against minorities, and that it contributes to anti-minority prejudice in society. The author argues that humor cannot be the automatic vehicle of prejudice because its reception is inevitably context-dependent. Different audiences react differently to the same words at different points in history. Also, racial, ethnic, and gender humor is widely performed and enjoyed by members of minorities. As to the second piece of criticism, Rappoport hypothesizes that this kind of humor, the often outrageous comedy of performers like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, renders intergroup hatred ludicrous and thus contributes to the destruction of prejudice and the decline of the significance of ethnicity in America. Ethnic humor immerses increasingly sophisticated mass audiences in the risky but entertaining and cathartic mud bath of human folly (racism, homophobia, misogyny) and then has them emerge cured from their own prejudices and hypocrisy.

Harald Weinrich, The linguistics of lying and other essays. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005, Pp. vii, 148. Pb. $18.95.

This book examines the nature of lying by considering the correlation between language and thought, language and reality, and language and context. In the five essays included, Weinrich relies on literary and philosophical works from Aristotle to Zola to propose his argument that linguistics can examine how language hides thoughts and how truth becomes distorted into lie. He weaves a sophisticated philosophy of the ways in which language is true or untrue, and the mechanisms of linguistics, literature, and life that signal these truths or untruths.

Thomas E. Murray and Beth Lee Simon (eds.), Language variation and change in the American Midland: A new look at ‘Heartland’ English. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2006. Pp. ix, 319. Hb $165.

The editors of this volume have brought together an excellent collection of original essays that discuss issues of importance in the accounting of language patterns in American English and, in particular, in the definition of the “Midland” as a dialect area. As Simon states in an introductory piece, “The scrutiny given Midland dialect here raises fundamental issues regarding the basic notion of dialect and, consequently, how we theorize patterns of language variation” (p. xi). The essays present the results of empirical work using modern methodologies that incorporate statistical, archival, ethnographic, and textual investigations. These studies provide a fairly comprehensive picture of the Midland and its speakers, but they go beyond this to provide insight into the dynamics of language change and geosocial patterns .

Ana Celia Zentella (ed.), Building on strength: Language and literacy in Latino families and communities. New York: Teachers College Press, 2005. Pp. 224. Pb $23.95.

The 11 essays in Zentella's edited volume investigate language socialization practices of U.S. Latinos and together make possible a conceptualization of Latino language and literacy that resists “a view of Latino parents as monolithic and unconcerned about education” (p. 3). In her introduction, Zentella briefly traces the history of language socialization research and introduces the framework that undergirds the volume.

Anne Barron and Klaus P. Schneider (eds.), The pragmatics of Irish English. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2005. Pp.vi, 408. Hb. $151.20

Of the 13 studies included in this pioneering volume, two acquaint the reader with the research setting regarding the use of English in Ireland and with the particular focus of this project. In the first, “Irish English: A focus on language in action”, the editors specify that the volume is designed to fill a gap – since existing empirical studies on the pragmatics of Irish English are few and of recent date (starting in the late 1990s), unlike the investigation of this diatopic variety on various linguistic levels, the history of which reaches back into the 18th century and is synthetically presented in the second introductory study, Raymond Hickey's “Irish English in the context of previous research”. The other 11 studies are divided into three sections, devoted to pragmatic aspects of Irish English in the private sphere, in the official sphere, and in the public sphere, respectively.

Publications received (through 4 June 2007).

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