Vox Popular: The Surprising Life of Language in the Media - Hardcover

Queen, Robin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470659912 ISBN 13: 9780470659915

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015

Synopsis

Our favorite movies and TV shows feature indelible characters who tell us about themselves not just in what they say but in how they say it. The creative decisions behind these voices―such as what accent or dialect to use―offer rich data for sociolinguistic study. Ideal for students of language variation as well as general readers interested in media, Vox Popular is an engaging tour through the major issues of sociolinguistic study as heard in the voices from mass media.

• Provides readers with a unified and accessible picture of the interrelationships between language variation and the mass media

• Presents detailed original analyses of multiple audiovisual media sources

• Includes a broad methods chapter covering quantitative and qualitative methods in a style not available in any other textbook

• All theoretical terms are accessibly explained, with engaging examples, making it suitable for non-academics as well as undergraduate students

• Incorporates pedagogical textboxes throughout and includes sections dedicated to developing practical skills for the field

About this title

About the Author

Robin Queen is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Linguistics, English Languages and Literatures, and Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. In addition to her research on language variation in the mass media, Queen has extensively researched language, gender, and sexuality; intonation and prosody; and contact-related language change. She is the co-author of Through the Golden Door: Educational Approaches for Immigrant Adolescents with Limited Schooling (1998).

From the Back Cover

Our favorite movies and TV shows feature indelible characters who tell us about themselves not just in what they say but in how they say it. The creative decisions behind these voices―such as what accent or dialect to use―offer rich data for sociolinguistic study. Vox Popular describes the ways in which language is employed to further characterization or narrative plot, offering insightful and engaging analyses of dialogue from sitcoms like Modern Family and The Office to classic and contemporary films like Coming to America and The Help. Queen argues that linguistic register and language variation are as central to these works as costume, scenery, and musical score.

The book provides a general sociolinguistic understanding of what variation, wherever it might occur, can tell us about the social world. It addresses the common perception that the media are destroying language by using “bad language,” and gives a linguist’s take on what this means. Queen also addresses the perception that the media are a poor source of information about ‘real’ life and ‘real’ language and instead shows what a rich source of linguistic and cultural data the mass media can provide, tapping into linguistic depictions of race and class that are coded for a certain understanding by the audience, even if it’s unconscious. By looking to popular culture’s representations of language in works we consume, Vox Popular provides a novel and engaging understanding of the major issues of sociolinguistics for those new to the field.

From the Inside Flap

Our favorite movies and TV shows feature indelible characters who tell us about themselves not just in what they say but in how they say it. The creative decisions behind these voices—such as what accent or dialect to use—offer rich data for sociolinguistic study. Vox Popular describes the ways in which language is employed to further characterization or narrative plot, offering insightful and engaging analyses of dialogue from sitcoms like Modern Family and The Office to classic and contemporary films like Coming to America and The Help. Queen argues that linguistic register and language variation are as central to these works as costume, scenery, and musical score.

The book provides a general sociolinguistic understanding of what variation, wherever it might occur, can tell us about the social world. It addresses the common perception that the media are destroying language by using “bad language,” and gives a linguist’s take on what this means. Queen also addresses the perception that the media are a poor source of information about ‘real’ life and ‘real’ language and instead shows what a rich source of linguistic and cultural data the mass media can provide, tapping into linguistic depictions of race and class that are coded for a certain understanding by the audience, even if it’s unconscious. By looking to popular culture’s representations of language in works we consume, Vox Popular provides a novel and engaging understanding of the major issues of sociolinguistics for those new to the field.  

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470659912
• ISBN 13: 9780470659915
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288