William Downes, Language and society. 2nd edn. (Cambridge approaches to linguistics.) Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 503. Hb $64.95, pb $24.95. Ronald Wardhaugh, An introduction to sociolinguistics. 3rd edn. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. Pp. viii, 404.

Abstract

Somewhere sociolinguistics must be flourishing. Here we have the second edition of a volume that first appeared in 1984, and the third edition of one that was first published in 1986. It is not as though there are no competing works in print. Hudson 1996 is a revision of a 1980 work, while Trudgill 1995 is the third version of a work that first appeared in 1974. Still in their first manifestation are Holmes 1992 and Romaine 1994. Clearly, there must be a market for these works, since altruism is hardly a common feature of the modern publishing world.