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Tessa Carroll, Language planning and language change in Japan. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001. Pp. 275. Hb. $40.00

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2002

Patricia J. Wetzel
Affiliation:
Japanese Program, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, wetzelp@pdx.edu

Abstract

The strength of this book (henceforth LPLCJ) is that it is filled with information about an important but little-understood aspect of Japanese culture: Japan's stance toward its own language. It takes as its point of departure “the study of language planning as a branch of the sociology of language” (p. 10). For reasons that I will outline below, I find this particular approach unsatisfying, but the book's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, and I will outline the former here before offering my own opinion on how this topic should be approached.

Type
REVIEWS
Copyright
2002 Cambridge University Press

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