{"id":2185,"date":"2012-07-10T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2012-07-09T10:44:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T08:44:10","slug":"the-handbook-of-language-socialization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=2185","title":{"rendered":"The handbook of language socialization"},"content":{"rendered":"
The handbook of language socialization<\/strong>. Ed. by Alessandro Duranti<\/strong>, Elinor Ochs<\/strong>, and Bambi B. Schieffelin<\/strong>. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. 680. ISBN 9781405191869<\/a>. $195 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Kanavillil Rajagopalan<\/a><\/strong>, State University at Campinas <\/em><\/p>\n

This book is comprised of twenty-seven chapters that examine several aspects of language socialization, a theme that has lately attracted a growing number of researchers around the world. The book is part of the Blackwell handbooks in linguistics series, which has won wide acclaim from the scholarly community. Following an introductory chapter by Elinor Ochs <\/strong>and Bambi<\/strong> Schieffelin<\/strong>, titled \u2018The theory of language socialization\u2019, the remaining twenty-six chapters are \u00a0presented in five parts: \u2018Interactional foundations\u2019, \u2018Socialization strategies\u2019, \u2018Social orientations\u2019, \u2018Aesthetics and imagination\u2019, and \u2018Language and culture contact\u2019.<\/p>\n

Tracing its roots to early insights in anthropology, the authors of the opening chapter highlight the paramount importance of socialization in child language acquisition and claim that, in the past, anthropologists paid scant attention to language. Thus, what is urgently called for is a multidisciplinary approach to language socialization research.<\/p>\n

Many of the chapters included in this book report state-of-the-art trends in research. Olga Solomon<\/strong>, for instance, pleads for a thorough rethinking of the way that researchers have over the years approached the phenomenon of \u2018baby talk\u2019 (BT) and, based on evidence from autistic children, argues that what matters is not the register of BT per se but, more specifically, \u2018certain kinds<\/em> of BT that have facilitating and supporting properties for the development of communication and sociality\u2019 (141). In her chapter, Leslie Moore<\/strong> turns the spotlight to repetition that paves the way for the formation of routines, an essential ingredient of language socialization. In their contribution, Alessandro Duranti <\/strong>and Steven P. Black <\/strong>look at verbal improvization (e.g. as in joking), drawing on variation and flexibility and its importance in \u2018improvisational art genres such as jazz and freestyle in hip hop\u2019 (459).<\/p>\n

Shirley Brice Heath<\/strong> examines the role of language socialization in art and science, which has as yet been little explored and whose understandings tend to be markedly \u2018different significantly across cultures\u2019 (425). Kathleen C. Riley <\/strong>recognizes the paramount importance of cultural beliefs about language acquisition in shaping language socialization routines used by caregivers and educators. In her chapter, Debra A. Friedman <\/strong>looks at the role of language socialization in language revitalization, taking as her point of departure the claim that \u2018[w]ith its emphasis on language use as a set of ideologically mediated cultural practices, the language socialization approach is well positioned to elucidate how such language ideologies are produced, reproduced, transmitted or transformed through everyday social routines\u2019 (632), which she duly credits to Kathleen C. Riley.<\/p>\n

This book is a valuable collection of authoritative surveys that cover practically all of the relevant topics under the rubric of language socialization. Many of the chapters also point in the direction of future trends, and the book is rounded off with a useful index of topics and names of key figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The handbook of language socialization. Ed. by Alessandro Duranti, Elinor Ochs, and Bambi B. Schieffelin. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. 680. ISBN 9781405191869. $195 (Hb). Reviewed by Kanavillil Rajagopalan, State University at Campinas This book is comprised of twenty-seven chapters that examine several aspects of language socialization, a theme that has lately attracted a growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}