Untitled

provider behaviours that establish and cross-cut
ethnic, gender, class and racial boundaries.
See also: political socialisation
MARGARET B. SWAIN, USA
Society and Leisure/Loisir et
SocieÂteÂ
Society and Leisure/Loisir et SocieÂte is a multidisciplinary
refereed journal dedicated to the study of
leisure and recreation. It publishes articles
based on either fundamental or methodological
research, aiming at both disseminating the results
of empirical research and initiating critical debates
about the relationships between free time and
social change. Its issues are thematic and usually
are divided into three main sections: articles
dealing with the theme of the issue and forming
its most substantial part, non-thematic articles
addressing current scientific issues, and book
reviews. First appearing in 1978, it is published
twice yearly by Les Presses de l'Universite du
QueÂbec �ISSN 0705±3436).
RENE BARETJE, FRANCE
sociocultural change see change, sociocultural
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is a relatively new sub-discipline
within linguistics which examines the interrelationships
between language and society. Since `language
is not a single code used in the same manner
by all people in all situations' �Trudgill 1983: 32),
sociolinguistics studies the varieties of language
which are attributable to the different sociocultural
characteristics and contexts of speakers and
listeners.
Applied to tourism, sociolinguistics constitutes a
paradigm or multi-theoretical perspective based
on the premise that tourism communication is a
form of language. Many contributors towards an
understanding of tourism in sociology and
anthropology either tacitly or openly acknowl-
sociolinguistics 543
edge such a linguistic component. Some works,
especially those dealing with the semiotics of
attractions, are grounded in markers or representations
of a sight. Whether these signs of reality
are off-sight �such as travel books) or on-sight �like
notices), they nevertheless speak in terms of the
`must sees' of sightseeing. Tourism thus develops a
moral rhetoric of authenticity complete with its
own glossary.
Those scholars who conceive of tourism as a
sacred journey are very much aware of the iconfilled
messages of maps and other forms of
publicity which connote the ritualistic obligations
of travel. Others who take a different approach,
founded on the distinction between familiarity and
strangerhood, nevertheless have a fascination with
the discourse of tour advertisements and how
particular words are used to frame the experience
of novelty as an alternative to mass tourism.
Dann �1996) has extended this treatment to
travelogues and the verbal techniques employed
by travel writers to reduce the unfamiliarity of
foreign destinations for their readers. Those who
adopt more of a postmodern ludic perspective for
an appreciation of contemporary tourism still see
the need to explore the discourse of the media
through which themes are created for cultural
consumption.
However, those who assume constructivist positions
in tourism research are perhaps the closest of
all to the sociolinguistic paradigm. Writers such as
Hollinshead �1993), for instance, regularly fill their
analyses with terms such as narrative, discourse,
rhetoric, idiom, speech, talk and storylines, as
different players in various touristic scenarios vie
for their version of the truth and the power to
articulate it. This `invention of culture' position is
necessarily processual and conflictual, since it
assumes that definitions of situations are competitive
in nature, particularly those which relate to
history and heritage.
Finally, there are several recurring tourism
communication encounters which can benefit from
a sociolinguistic treatment for a fuller understanding
of the asymmetry underlying verbal
exchanges which take place. For example, according
to Cohen and Cooper �1986), when tourists and
destination people interact on a temporary basis,
there is considerable linguistic accommodation that