Includes bibliographical references.

Preface; Section 1; Survey; 1. The relationship of language and culture; Nature, culture, language; Communities of language users; Imagined communities; Insiders/outsiders; Linguistic relativity; The Sapir - Whorf hypothesis; Summary; 2. Meaning as sign; The linguistic sign; The meaning of signs; Cultural encodings; Semantic cohesion; The non-arbitrary nature of signs; Symbols; Summary; 3. Meaning as action; Context of situation, context of culture; Structures of expectation; Contextualization cues, situated inferences; Pragmatic coherence; The co-operative principle; Participants' roles and the co-construction of culture; Summary; 4. Spoken language, oral culture; Speech and writing; Indicating status; Social positionings; Protecting face; Conversational style; Narrative style; Summary; 5. Print language, literate culture; Written language, textual culture; Print and power; Social construction of literacy; Text and discourse; Literacy event, prior text, point of view; Genre; Summary; 6 Language and cultural identity; Cultural identity; Cultural stereotypes; Language crossing as act of identity; Linguistic nationism; Standard language, cultural totem; Linguistic and cultural imperialism; Summary; 7. Current issues; Who is a native speaker?; Cultural authenticity; Cross-cultural, intercultural, multicultural; The politics of recognition; SECTION 2; Readings; SECTION 3; References; SECTION 4; Glossary

Recent social and political changes have focused attention on the debate about the relationship between language and culture. This book offers an accessible survey of key concepts such as social context and cultural authenticity, using insights from fields which include linguistics, sociology and anthropology.