Philip Riley is Emeritus Professor of Ethnolinguistics at the University of Nancy, France.

• Introduction - The Historical and Theoretical Background; Part I: The Social Knowledge System; 1. Structures and Functions; 2. The Social Learning Process: Intersubjectivity; 3. 'Culture' as Knowledge: Cultural Markers; Part II: Identity; 4. Social Identity: You are what you know; 5. Membershipping Practices, Phatic Communion and Greetings; 6. Rearing Practices; Part III: 'The Stranger'; 7. Ethnicity; 8. Compensation Strategies; 9. Pragmatic Failure; 10. The Bilingual Child and the 'Language Learner'; Part IV: Reconfiguring Identities; 11. Globalisation and Verbal Hygiene; 12. Ethos and the Communicative Virtues; Conclusion.

Riley explores in considerable detail questions of how language shapes people's identities and vice versa.  A definitive sociolinguistic study of this sort necessarily demands a comprehensive understanding of social psychology, anthropology, history, language variations, and a host of related subjects.  Riley is remarkably well informed in these fields...the author is skilled in presenting material in ways that will engage and interest readers... Summing Up: Recommended