Bodies and Language Health, Ailments, Disabilities

Focusing on body conditions associated with breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, (type-1) diabetes, epilepsy, partial hearing and autism, this book draws on a range of critical theories to contest collectively assembled notions of 'abnormality,' 'disability' and 'impairments' and ways in which they emerge through language. It also addresses the need for applied sociolinguists to take account of how our researching practices - the texts we produce, the orientations we assume, the theoretical grounds from which we proceed-- create 'meanings' about bodies and 'normalcy', and the importance of remaining ever vigilant and civically responsible in what we do or claim to do.

Vaidehi Ramanathan is a professor of applied sociolinguistics in the department of linguistics at the University of California, Davis. Her previous publications include: Alzheimer Discourse: Some Sociolinguistics Dimensions (LEA 1997), The Politics of TESOL Education: Writing, Knowledge, critical pedagogy (2002, Routledge), and The English-Vernacular Divide: Postcolonial Language Politics and Practice (Multilingual Matters, 2005).