With the death of Charles Albert Ferguson (“Fergie” to his friends, colleagues, and students) on September 2, 1998, in Palo Alto, California, at the age of seventy-seven, the field of sociolinguistics lost a scholar of unusual depth, breadth, integrity, and kindness.

Florian Coulmas, Sociolinguistics: The study of speakers' choices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. 263. Pb $29.99.

In his new textbook, Coulmas provides readers an easy introduction to sociolinguistics, using speaker choice as the central notion for discussion. In a comfortable conversational style, the author slowly introduces topics, using common examples to demonstrate how sociolinguists think about language use. He provides summaries of findings of key sociolinguistic studies that illustrate ideas without overloading readers with unnecessary and cumbersome details of those studies. The book is accessible for beginning sociolinguistics students and is equally engaging for those already familiar with sociolinguistic concepts, largely because the author uses such interesting and global research to illustrate ideas.

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 .

Jake Harwood and Howard Giles (eds.), Intergroup communication: Multiple perspectives. New York: Peter Lang, 2005. Pp. viii, 277. Pb $29.95.

Social psychologists have long been concerned with the ways in which group categories operate in the organization of social life, but communication scholars have been slower to examine such intergroup processes. Editors Jake Harwood and Howard Giles present a pioneering collection on intergroup communication, which, they argue, deserves to stand on its own as a distinct research area. It is notable that while this volume examines intergroup issues, this endeavor is – in and of itself – intergroup in nature, bringing together the fields of social psychology and communication. Covering an impressive breadth of social groups and contexts, the chapters in this collection draw heavily on social identity theory (SIT) in the study of intergroup communication. Linguistic anthropologists and qualitative sociolinguists investigate many of the same issues covered in this volume – most notably culture, gender, sexuality, and multilingualism – with vastly different theoretical models and methodological tools. Still, this book should appeal to all types of scholars who may be at the very least curious about how theoretical trends in social psychology and communication might inform shared areas of concern, despite what may be irreconcilable ontological differences.

This is a great book. In it, Shuy describes some of the applied linguistics consultancy work he has undertaken in the past twenty years, mostly involving legal cases and public institutions in the US. He sets out to show how linguistics is a valuable tool in the analysis of bureaucratic language, in the hopes that that through this, “the intersection of law and linguistics may be furthered” (x), and that more fellow linguists will become involved in similar consultancy. Shuy gives a clear exposition not only of what he and colleagues have done but also of how they have negotiated working relationships. He is particularly strong on the ethics of consultancy, and his clear exposition of how the consultancy relationship should be set up merits attention from people well beyond the area of language study. Shuy's case studies and ethical points would be good preliminary reading for students undertaking language project work (for more on ethics, see BAAL 1994).

This issue revives the “Book Notes” section. Book notes are 500-word reports that summarize new books that may be of interest to some readers of Language in Society. This format will mean that more of the books we receive can be reviewed. Book notes are assigned to people who volunteer, and advanced graduate students are welcome to write book notes with a faculty member's supervision. Anyone interested in writing a book note should contact Jennifer Andrus at [email protected] for a list of available books. Books that are of general interest to Language in Society readers will still be considered for full critical reviews, which I will continue to commission. Readers should keep in mind that unsolicited reviews or book notes are rarely accepted. If there is a book you would like to review, please contact me first, at the same address.