Subject: sociolinguistics

women changing language anne pauwels , professor of linguistics in the department of linguistics at the university of new england , armidale , australia . paper 0-582 - 09962 - 5 hardback 0-582 - 09961 - 7 280 pages 1998 real language series longman - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' women changing language ' documents and discusses feminist language reform , looking at the initiatives and actions of women around the world to change the biased representation of the sexes in language . the book pays tribute to the activities of many women who have helped debunk myths about the relationship between women and language , for example that women are ' consumers ' of language and men are ' makers ' of meaning and creators of language rules . the study reverses this view , concentrating on women as meaning ' makers ' . women are shown to be language activists who readily challenge sexist language assumptions and practices . the discussion around feminist language reform is approached from a language planning perspective , which has until now been given little recognition . moreover , for the first time , this study adopts multilingual and multicultural dimensions , drawing examples from europe and asia . the extensive collection of multilingual data reveals diversity as well as similarities between languages in the expression and coding of sexism . the study also stresses the need to bear in mind that different cultural attitudes can have varied effects on the acceptance and success of language reform . this book is highly recommended for students and lecturers in sociolinguistics , women 's studies , critical discourse analysis as well as the sociology of language . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - further information on the books published in this series , and the table of contents for this title can be viewed at the longman linguistics on-line catalogue at : http : / / www . awl-he . com / linguistics for a complete listing of our world-wide offices , please click below : http : / / www . awl-he . com / offices
