Polity publishes a list of textbooks and original works in the fields of language and linguistics. Key titles include Ian Hutchby and Robin Wooffitt's Conversation Analysis, now in its second edition, Frederick Erickson’s Talk and Social Theory, Jean-Louis Calvet’s Towards an Ecology of World Languages and DavidCrystal’s The Language Revolution.
The work of some of the social theorists and sociologists published by Polity is also of interest to students and scholars in linguistics and sociolinguistics. Of particular interest is Abram de Swaan's Words of the World: The Global Language System, Pierre Bourdieu's Language and Symbolic Power and the many works by Jürgen Habermas, especially On the Pragmatics of Communication and On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction.
Visit our highlights page for more information on our new and forthcoming general interest titles.
Hutchby and Wooffitt: Conversation Analysis
'Conversation analysis is increasingly understood as providing a major contribution to theories and methods across the social sciences. Hutchby and Wooffitt have written an introduction to conversation analysis which is clear, authoritative and engaging. It is the best book on conversation analysis so far, and it will be hard to better it. It is a splendid textbook that will be eagerly adopted by those teaching conversation analysis but it will also be read widely by researchers and academics who want to find out what this thriving and challenging field has to offer.'
Jonathan Potter, Professor of Discourse Analysis, Loughborough University
David Crystal: The Language Revolution
'This is the first book to deal with the really important question of “what to do next?” After the rise of English, the endangerment of minoritized languages the world over and the web’s tilt toward where the money is, what can we who treasure diversity as the real human (and humanizing) condition “do about” the continued and accelerating demise of scores of languages every month? Crystal is a master of simplifying (but not oversimplifying) the difficult, as well as of involving the reader in ideas and efforts that go beyond the status quo and good intentions. Three cheers for more of the same!'
Joshua A. Fishman, Yeshiva University, Stanford University and New York University
Frederick Erickson: Talk and Social Theory
"This latest book by Erickson addresses an issue that is very timely and topical...the puzzle it seeks to crack is one that has long haunted researchers in social sciences and related areas."
Journal of Sociolinguistics
Louis-Jean Calvet: Towards an Ecology of World Languages
"A treasure-trove addition in the realm of ecolinguistics ... of interest not only to professional linguists – it is also a highly recommended textbook for students of linguistics."
Jan Blommaert and Pan Lin, Journal of Sociolinguistics
