| The Contribution of Sociolinguistics |
Sue Wright
Institutefor the Study of Language and Society, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET |
| Our aim in this new journal is to provide a forum for contact between researchers in Sociolinguistics and those in a variety of other disciplines. This forum has a very concrete form in that the journal is based on the papers presented at colloquia with invited speakers and guests and on the debates that ensue. From the very warm reception our overtures and invitations have received from our colleagues in other disciplines it seems that we have struck upon an interdisciplinarity which is often overlooked, but whichas soon as it is consideredis seen to be very pertinent. Even those scholars who had either never considered the linguistic dimension of their specialism or for whom it had not appeared important have been willing to reexamine their paradigms and confront our analyses with their own. The dialogue has already been so lively and instructive, we have no doubt that the exercise will prove worthwhile. |
| The editors start from the position of linguists in one of the UK university departments of language and society founded during the last twenty-five years. Having moved away from the classical language and literature mould of the traditional university, we find ourselves working in a number of disciplines through the foreign language. Within the department, we variously approach the areas of political science, of social organisation, of commerce and industry, of anthropology, of education, even of science and technology, because our discipline is a vehicle as well as a body of knowledge, and to teach a language at an advanced level is to have a medium which one must 'fill' with content. Since we must also teach this vehicle, this skill, we are perpetually confronted with questions concerning the nature of languagehow we acquire it; how we use it; its role in persuading, controlling, understanding, obfuscating. Logically, we come to think about how language is used in the fields we are examiningthe part language plays in constructs of power, state, social structure, dominance, exploitation, social inclusion, social exclusion, and perhaps, above all, social change. We focus on the discourse of politics, the role of language in education, the functions of language in industry and commerce, the dissemination of scientific ideas. |
| We find ourselves in the conferences of political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, educationalists, acquiring skills in the disciplines we need to continue this work of the new-style language department. We are aware that we have much to learnwe have not necessarily been trained in these disciplines; we have to acquire new theoretical frameworks to proceed. But while we are humble, we are also shocked by the silences and the omissions. We attend symposia on |
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