The Linguistic Individual: Self-Expression in Language and Linguistics
Author(s): Barbara Johnstone (Author)
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: 12 Sept. 1996
- Language: English
- Print length: 234 pages
- ISBN-10: 0195101855
- ISBN-13: 9780195101850
Book Description
Johnstone examines a variety of discourse genres, showing how choices among linguistic resources are mediated by self-expressive choices. She then discusses linguistic consistency across a variety of speech situations, and asks how, if language is fundamentally idiosyncratic, people can understand one another. Johnstone examines a variety of discourse genres, showing how choices among linguistic resources are mediated by self-expressive choices. She then discusseslinguistic consistency across a variety of speech situations, and asks how, if language is fundamentally idiosyncratic, people can understand one another.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Barbara Johnstone has written the sort of book I suspect many of us would like to write. She has woven various strands of her own personal approach to linguistics, but also might legitimately be said to present a fresh perspective on language-or better, on the ways we express ourselves to each other in talk. Those of us already engaged in discourse analysis will profit from Johnstone's focus on the individual voice and on the way it informs her analyses, while linguists of other stripes should read this book as an introduction to the new humanistic tendencies in the study of language."--Anthropological Linguistics
Review
"Barbara Johnstone has written the sort of book I suspect many of us would like to write. She has woven various strands of her own personal approach to linguistics, but also might legitimately be said to present a fresh perspective on language-or better, on the ways we express ourselves to each other in talk. Those of us already engaged in discourse analysis will profit from Johnstone's focus on the individual voice and on the way it informs her analyses, while linguists of other stripes should read this book as an introduction to the new humanistic tendencies in the study of language."--Anthropological Linguistics
From the Back Cover
Barbara Johnstone makes a case for the individual's importance and idiosyncrasies in language and linguistics. Using theoretical arguments and discourse analysis, along with linguistic examples from a variety of speakers and settings, Johnstone illustrates how speakers draw on linguistic models associated with class, ethnicity, gender, and region, among others to construct an individual voice.
About the Author
Barbara Johnstone is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Texas A&M University.
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