Volume 7 (2016) Issue 1
English,
Fiona / Tim Marr (2015): Why Do Linguistics? Reflective
Linguistics and the Study of Language. London, New Delhi, New York,
Sydney: Bloomsbury (292 pages) (ISBN 978-1-4411-6609-8)
1 General Impression
Again
another introduction to linguistics? No, not at all. What the authors
want to show is what one can do with linguistics. They want to
convince the reader that knowledge about language is more important
even in everyday life than most people think. This is a good
intention and an ambitious aim worthy of support.
The
book provides good and inspiring reading on various topics concerning
language in social life. Nothing new is offered, and this is neither
required nor expected in a book like this. Instead, it covers a broad
spectrum of generally interesting subjects ranging from linguistic
ethnography, correctness, language variety and change, writtenness
and spokenness to multilingualism, translanguaging, language myths,
language at school and at work – all this with a clear focus on
pragmatics and applied linguistics.
Who
wants to read all this? Who is being addressed? English & Marr
feel it is "an invitation to all those with an interest in
language to engage with the discipline of linguistics" (266),
and, in their opinion, that should be "everybody" (189).
Students may get to know some new aspects, and linguistic colleagues
may find some material for their lessons. Both groups, however, have
to be initially interested in linguistics; and there is no reason why
the rest of the world should spend their time reading 270 pages on
this subject.
This
is the main problem of the book: it is neither fish nor fowl. For
students and professionals, the text does not go into detail, apart
from the fact that, over long stretches, it is exemplary and
associative rather than systematic. It presents quite different bits
and pieces of information like, for example, pages 62 to 67 on
multilingual
nations:
Who is able to keep this potpourri of facts in mind? For laymen, on
the other hand, there are quite a few more challenging passages; this
is just not a book for everyone. Those readers, however, who look at
the book benevolently might find a broader audience generally
interested in language(s) and linguistics. This audience, however,
does not have to be linguistically educated only, but also highly
motivated right from the beginning. The text oscillates between an
amateur and an expert level. Besides, some parts are more inductive,
starting from examples and inviting the reader to do his individual
research. Other chapters approach the subject more deductively,
presenting facts, theories and research results.
Apart
from the above-mentioned critical point, we may now come to the
laudable qualities of the book. English & Marr strive for
linguistic awareness, and they passionately plead for awareness
raised towards language in everyday communication. Whoever reads this
book, is richly rewarded by a variety of information and stimulating
discussions.
2 Content
In
the following, the content of the present book will be analysed in a
more detailed manner. As linguistics is "an extremely
wide-ranging field of study" (97), English & Marr
concentrate on "language and other communicative modes as can be
observed in our day-to-day interactions" (97). Throughout the
book, they argue that "language awareness is developed by
observing, describing and understanding communicative activity in its
natural environments" (97).
This
is why in the first, exploratory, part of the book (ch. 1 to 5), the
editors start off with different communicative phenomena they find
peculiar. They feel that these phenomena, taken from their daily
surroundings, permit to raise questions "that often crop up in
the media and in day-to-day conversation" (9). These are all
about interpersonal relationships, identity and power. The first, and
very intriguing, chapter "About noticing: Becoming a linguistic
ethnographer" (11-25) presents four small examples of language
use: a recorded message in an underground station lift, a graffiti,
an email, and a schoolboy’s eight-word remark. In a certain way,
each of these cases seems weird or, in other words, inconspicuously
conspicuous. The authors precisely identify why these utterances are
built as they are and what we can learn from them.
In
the second chapter "About correctness" (26-44) the ideology
of standardization and what is ‘good’ in language is discussed.
In Chapter 3 "About belonging" (45-59), the question of how
language enacts community is asked. Chapter 4 "About diversity"
(60-78) deals with multilingualism, language and state control,
language shift, language prestige, and language attitudes. Chapter 5
"About difference" (79-93) considers similarities and
differences among languages themselves.
In
Part II (ch. 6 to 10), the authors promise to introduce linguistic
tools which allow the reader a more thorough analysis of such
phenomena and deeper language awareness. They provide a rough
overview of phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax and semantics (ch. 6:
"Essential linguistic tools", 99-116), explain key concepts
of discourse analysis (ch. 7: "A framework for analysis",
117-129), present features of "Speaking and spokenness"
(ch. 8, 130-148) as opposed to "Writing and writtenness"
(ch. 9, 149-170), and discuss how people choose their words to
promote a particular version of reality (ch. 10: "Choosing our
words", 171-186).
Part
III is meant to show why linguistics is a useful source of knowledge
for everybody. Chapter 11 on "Translanguaging: When the mixed
code is the code" (191-207) demonstrates that many commonly held
opinions about language arise from too narrow an understanding of how
people use language. In Chapter 12 on "Myths and moral panics:
Linguistics and the public domain" (208-228), the authors
examine how language-related issues are (mis-)represented in public
discourse and the media. In Chapter 13 on "The subject that
isn’t a subject: Language at school" (229-242), they advocate
that language,
and not just languages,
should be a separate subject in the school curriculum. In Chapter 14
("Communicating the sharp edge: Linguistics and the workplace",
243-259), they describe useful contributions of linguistic knowledge
at the workplace, especially in service-oriented contexts such as
police stations and call centres. In Chapter 15, finally resuming the
main question "So why do linguistics?" (260-266), they draw
a conclusion, mainly claiming that linguistic insights should be
taken seriously in all sorts of professional and everyday contexts.
They also claim that linguistics should be considered as general
knowledge which opens up different ways of thinking and can even be
fun (261-264).
Each
chapter begins with a short introduction, giving an outlook on what
the reader can expect from it, and concludes with a summary plus
helpful suggestions for further reading.
3 Concluding Remarks
Throughout
the book, English & Marr rightly argue that "linguistic
awareness is developed by observing, describing and understanding
communicative activity in its natural surroundings" (97). They
present a conundrum of examples, facts, and theories. After having
read the book the linguistic novice's head may be spinning despite
the good readability of most passages. It may still be difficult for
him to keep all this heterogeneous information in mind. Perhaps it
would have been better if the authors had always started with
examples first and then consistently applied suitable linguistic
methods to analyze and understand the specific problems.
The
authors are very much into the tradition of social semiotics and
critical discourse analysis, established and applied by Halliday,
Kress, Fairclough, Blommaert, and Paltridge, to quote some important
names here. This is not only understandable, but also very useful in
this context and with this aim in mind. Unfortunately, the central
chapters on the system of language seem to be largely unconnected
with the front and the rear sections, which leaves the reader with
the impression that the system
is opposed to language use.
The authors would have done better to treat the traditional core
linguistic subjects (such as phonology, morphology, syntax) at their
appropriate places within the pragmatically oriented chapters. Then,
they could have supported one of their main arguments even more
convincingly, namely (and this is true) "that there is very
little that is fixed in matters of language, and that prestige,
standardness and even correctness itself are often in a state of
shift and flux." (26)
The
authors concentrate on the Anglo-American academic world. From almost
300 references, not a single one is written in any other language but
English, and there are very few non-English or non-American authors.
This is remarkable in a book that constantly advocates diversity,
global orientation and multilingualism. In this respect, the
following statement is revelatory: "A good deal is known about
India because Indian intellectuals and academic researchers tend to
publish in English" (196). Knowledge not published in English
remains unknown – and this is another matter of power and identity.
Colour
printing and acoustic examples would enhance the book considerably.
Unfortunately, an accompanying
website (mentioned only once in passing and without any indication of
the URL: )
presents nothing but ten colour photographs printed in the book in
black and white. Adding multimodal materials would be possible and
helpful instead.
Reviewer:
Prof.
Dr. Ulrich Schmitz
University
of Duisburg-Essen
Universitätsstr. 12
45117 Essen
Universitätsstr. 12
45117 Essen
Germany
E-mail:
ulrich.schmitz@uni-due.de