THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF SOCIETY: Introduction to Sociolingub

stics, Volume I. By Ralph Fasold. L a n g u a g e in Society 5. Oxford: Basil

Blackwell Ltd., 1984. C l o t h , £ 2 5 . 0 0 , p a p e r b a c k £ 7 . 5 0 . xiv + 3 3 5 p p .

Reviewed by William S c h i p p e r
International Christian University

To the non-specialist, sociolinguistics must at times seem a strange creature

indeed, borrowing as it does from a variety of disciplines without an apparent
independent theoretical structure. One of its earliest public defenders went so
far as to suggest that the discipline "should preside over its own liquidation,"
meaning that linguistics properly speaking should embrace both the structural and
the social. But that goal is far from being realized, if it ever can be. Meanwhile
sociolinguistics continues as the hydra it resembles, a kind of flourishing jack-of-all-
disciplines, but master of none, least of all its own. It takes much skill, therefore,
to write one introductory textbook to a discipline which seems to require five or
six, because the author of an introductory text must not merely present the topic,
he must do so with clarity and concision, lest the subject become obscure to those
being initiated. Though Professor Fasold manages the first requirement reasonably
well, because, where his text is clear, it is admirably so; but he is less successful in
the second, and this is unfortunate. Nevertheless, while the book has many faults,
it remains an interesting and at times engaging introduction to the field, though
lacking the authoritative voice necessary for such a task.
In his Introduction (actually a five-page preface) Fasold notes that he has
"made an effort to write in an informal, quasi-conversational style," to make the
complex concepts of sociolinguistics easier to grasp than a "more traditional,.perhaps
aloof, textbook style" (p. xi). He, then, immediately draws attention to the presence
of sentences ending in prepositions, as if to suggest this is the worst of his problems.
Such sentences fit with an "informal" style, of course, while strange plurals like
"lingua francas" (p. 277) presumably belong to a "quasi-conversational" style.
Unfortunately, such a style undermines the authoritative voice which is a sine qua
non for a good textbook.
Fasold also bends over backwards to avoid "sexist" language. Perhaps, being
a sociolinguist makes him wary of social repercussions, but his awkward and
204 Language Sciences, Volume 8, Number 2 (1986)

unexpected shifts from "he" to "she" (beginning with the opening page) is likely
to jolt even the casual reader into an awareness that the author is doing something
very odd, rather than to instill an admiration for his sense of fairness. The problem,
admittedly a sensitive one, could have been solved very easily by resorting to the
n:ore neutral plural forms. On p. 187, for example, he begins with "himself"
(referring to a "bilingual speaker"), switches to "her" (referring to a "speaker")
two sentences later, and then returns to "him." It would have been an interesting
sociolinguistic experiment (and experience) had Fasold cast the entire book in
the feminine voice. But he did not, and such annoying stylistic oddities pepper the
book, making it more difficult to read than is necessary or desirable in an intro-
ductory text.
In short, this is an easy book to find fault with, and the problems adduced here
could be multiplied ad n a u s e a m . But they are, in some ways, peripheral ones.
More significant is the absence of a general description of sociolinguistics. Readers
can deduce something about the subject from the Introduction where the author
announces that the "essence of sociolinguistics . . . depends on two facts about
language that are often ignored in the field of linguistics" (p. xi). These are that
"language varies" (italics his) and that a speaker "can choose among alternative
linguistic means." "The study of the interplay between these two facts about
language," he continues, "is exactly sociolinguistics." But one looks in vain for
elaboration of this notion elsewhere in the book. Instead the student must deduce
what the discipline is from the text itself. Nowhere does Fasold bring together in
one place a discussion of the goals and limitations of sociolinguistics.
This seems a serious omission in an introductory textbook, and lessens its
usefulness considerably, especially since Fasold does have clear notions about the
function of an introductory textbook (cf. p. xi). More importantly, the first'seven
chapters implicitly call the usefulness of sociolinguistics into serious question, since
the examples he discusses do only what the least useful forms of sociology do,
namely, gather data and subject, often, insufficient data to statistical analysis
(compare Fasold's own remarks on the shortcomings of census figures and surveys,
pp. 113 ff.). Only in Chapter 4 (Statistics) does he describe the one tool used
extensively in sociolinguistic research. Though he sacrifices comprehensiveness
to comprehensibility here, and refers the reader to more authoritative texts, his
tone is nevertheless more masterful and authoritative than in preceding chapters,
and one wishes he had moved this discussion nearer the beginning. With that
exception, the first seven chapters, though summarizing some interesting and
valuable research on such matters as "national" and "nationist" movements in
Paraguay, "societal multilingualism" in India, "high" and "low" languages in Greece,
and bilingualism in Canada, leave one wondering what researchers in sociolinguistics
have been doing for twenty years, since Fasold presents their conclusions as, by
 Renew 205

implication, little more than commonsense notions. And if they have only been
stating the obvious for all that time, sociolinguistics would neither have contributed
anything new to our understanding of language in the context of the society in
which it is used, nor be interesting in any but a very simplistic sense. His manner
of presentation, thus, calls into question the very necessity for the discipline.
Fasold himself draws attention to the inadequacy of some sociolinguistic
scholarship. In his Introduction, he somewhat defensively announces that he
considers "anthropological linguistics and another subfield of anthropology, the
ethnography of communications, to be part of sociolinguistics" (p. xii). That he
even finds it necessary to mention them there suggests that they are not always
considered to be so. As early as p. 67, in a section he significantly entitles "The
failure of formulaic approaches," he raises an important question: " I f indeed there
are sociolinguistic generalities, why has no one been able to develop a notational
system that captures them? " Though he, then, continues with a "new" formulaic
approach, he makes clear in subsequent chapters that he really has very little
sympathy even for the one he proposes himself.
His own approach to the subject becomes abundantly clear when he turns to
"anthropological linguistics." In the summary of that chapter (Language Choice)
he writes:

It is no doubt reasonably clear by this time that I am most impressed with the
anthropological approach to language choice. Although anthropological linguists
don't practice the same standards of research design and statistical validation that the
other two social sciences require, it seems to me that their insights into what makes
code-switching and mixing occur go deeper than sociological and social psychological
research we have reviewed. . . . By remaining content with a statistically significant
relationship between language choices and the domains in which they are made, the
sociological work on domain analysis appears to imply that variation in language choice
cannot be or does not need to be explained. (p. 207).

Fasold, of course, is convinced that language choice both can and must be explained.
The paragraph from which these sentences are quoted is, perhaps, the single most
important place in the book for determining his own viewpoint on sociolinguistics
and, by extension, points to what is wrong with his book, namely, that he plays
favorites. The result is a noticeable imbalance between the opening chapters and
those which cover anthropology. There certainly are forums for this kind of bias,
but an introductory textbook is not one of them.
In the chapter covering this particular approach to language and society his
preferences are made abundantly clear. Gone are the asides which break the flow
of his discussion, as well as the stylistic oddities which bedevil many of the other
chapters. Though he remains somewhat defensive (as revealed in the frequent repeti-
tion of the phrase "it seems to me"), he now adopts, consciously or unconsciously,
206 Language Sciences, Volume 8, Number 2 (1986)

an authoritative tone, and in doing so implies approval for this particular branch of
sociolinguistics. He seems to favor an anthropological approach to language study
because, in his view, that branch of study has made the most significant (Fasold's
own word is "deepest") contributions to our understanding of the relationship
between language and society. In other words, if researchers in sociolinguistics
analysed their data and thought about the implications of their analysis in the way
anthropological linguists do, sociolinguistics would, in Fasold's view, be in much
better shape, since the researchers would take into account the social fact that
linguistic choice is often a question of being pragmatic.
It is not my intention to condemn the book merely because it has stylistic faults,
nor because Fasold obviously plays favorites. In fact, his intentions are entirely
honorable. The inclusion of summaries and a lengthy list of "Objectives" at the end
of each chapter suggest that he has given much thought to this book qua textbook.
The very things that make the book less than compelling to read suggest that most
chapters originated in the classroom instead of the study: The stylistic flaws,
together with the authorial asides and the occasionally peculiar analogies, make the
book sound like a series of lectures lightly revised for publication. The chapters
on anthropological linguistics, moreover, amply demonstrate both Fasold's own
interests and his ability to present difficult material in a clear and lively manner.
One wishes that he had extended this tone to the rest of the book, moreover, and
one hopes that he will have an opportunity to revise this volume. In the event that
he does, he might do well to begin with a chapter introducing and surveying the
discipline, presented in the same kind of authoritative voice he musters in chapters
8 and 9 of the present edition.
To conclude, Fasold's attempt to present a new introductory textbook in
sociolinguistics is laudable and, given the variety of disciplines on which sociolinguis-
tics draws, even intrepid. It may be more because of the latter, than a desire to
rush into print, that he does not wholly succeed. This is especially lamentable
because he clearly demonstrates the kind of broad knowledge, good sense, and
sense of style necessary in an informative and readable textbook. Much of the
volume, however, reads more like a prolonged search for an adequate methodology
in sociolinguistics (with the candidate clearly in view), than like an introductory
textbook. And in a minor way the excessively skimpy index (barely two and a half
pages for a 300 page book) suggests that portions of the text were put together
more hastily than advisable, for which the publishers are as much to blame as the
author. One hopes that Professor Fasold will fred both the time and energy to give
us a thoroughly revised introduction to the subject in the near future, and that the
projected second volume will have fewer flaws.