Discusses research on language contact according to political philosophy. Elucidates many of the approaches to the determination of linguistic rights possible within a normative theory. (Author/VWL)

Describes recent research on language maintenance to provide broad, worldwide coverage of different language contact situations. Surveys various countries in which research within ethnic and minority language communities illuminates language maintenance or shift, or revitalization, for that group. (Author/VWL)

Surveys developments in language revitalization and language death. Focusing on indigenous languages, discusses the role and nature of appropriate linguistic documentation, possibilities for bilingual education, and methods of promoting oral fluency and intergenerational transmission in affected languages. (Author/VWL)

Discusses research on interpreting focused specifically on issues raised by this literature about the nature of bilingualism. Suggests research carried out on interpreting--while primarily produced with a professional audience in mind and concerned with improving the practice of interpreting--provides valuable insights about complex aspects of…

Provides an overview of early work on the translation of sacred texts into various languages. Reviews the language use patterns and practices historically characteristic of different religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Quakerism. Describes linguistic effects of missionary activity in several…

Reviews the multidimensional research on bilingual education, covering contexts where bilingual children are in transitional classrooms as well as schools where curriculum content is experienced in two (or more) languages. Suggests that for bilingual education to play its part in language reversal, it needs to show its relative effectiveness, both…

Overviews current theory and practice and research on second language and second dialect speakers and the language of the law. Suggests most of the studies on the topic have analyzed language in courtrooms, where access to data is much easier than in other legal settings, such as police interviews, mediation sessions, or lawyer-client interviews.…

Addresses how applied linguists and those concerned with discourse analysis in particular have recently approached the study of health care communication, especially in intercultural contexts, and relates these approaches to studies undertaken by researchers in other academic disciplines, such as the sociology of medicine and by health care…

Discusses the field of language for business. Argues for redressing the balance of research into business as a site of language contact in favor of less well-represented languages and cultures through indigenous discourse studies, and notes the increasing frequency and importance of work involving Asian languages. (Author/VWL)

Reviews work on language contact phenomena in advertising. More emphasis is being placed on multilingual discourses in advertising and the ways in which these index identities, both of the products and services with which multiple cods are associated and of the consumers who peruse them. Also examines the various functions of different contact…

Drawing on recent work in variationist sociolinguistics, sociology of language and linguistic anthropology, focuses on new approaches to explaining gender differentiated patterns of sound change and language shift, the success or failure of planned linguistic reforms, and changes in the social evaluation of gendered speech styles. (Author/VWL)

Examines the interface between language change and Creole studies. Discusses the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis, the Creole continuum, Creoles and grammaticalization, theoretic syntax, creole prototypes, and second language acquisition and language change. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a question by a law student of whether a correction of "sneaked" to "snuck" suggests misinformation and misguided rigidity in the context of better information about current legal usage and a perennial tendency to linguistic prescription. Explores attitudes to current borrowings from English into Japanese and French and distinguishes…

Examines language shift from majority African languages, such as Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu to English in South Africa. Examines the extent to which sociopolitical changes that have taken place in South Africa have impacted everyday linguistic interaction and have contributed to language shift from the indigenous African language to English,…

Provides summary observations to this special issue of the journal on language contact and language change, examining concerns, major crosscutting themes, and neglected areas. (Author/VWL)