The second edition of Linguistic anthropology: A reader is an expanded and reworked edition of the classic article collection that is used often for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in linguistic anthropology and related courses in sociocultural linguistics. The division of the text remains the same as in the first edition, though the titles of the sections reflect the inclusion of new chapters: Part 1, “Ideal and real speech communities”; Part 2, “The performance of language: Events, genres, and narratives”; Part 3, “Language socialization and literacy practices”; and Part 4, “The power of language”. After the introductory note to each part in the book, suggestions for further reading are provided. These bibliographies have been expanded to include texts from the ever-changing and increasing resource-scape of linguistic anthropology.

The text begins with an introduction into the field of linguistic anthropology by Duranti. The introduction, which functions as a stand-alone chapter, provides a necessary manifesto for the discipline and, at the same time, draws distinctions between linguistic anthropology and closely related fields of inquiry. Research trends, traditions of analysis, and new research directions and complications are also discussed. Part 1 begins suitably with John Gumperz's classic article on speech communities. The following articles expand on the notion of the speech community within a variety of ethnographic contexts, including Zambian media discourse and interethnic service situations. A new chapter on the “idealized native speaker” rounds out this section by bringing to the fore issues problematized by the notion of an imagined speech community. Part 2 concerns itself with language as a performative event, highlighting communicative events and rituals. Articles familiar to readers of the first edition, like Duranti's chapter on greetings and the chapter on formality by Judith Irvine, complement newer chapters, which represent the influence of language performance in more diverse realms including politics and hip hop.

Language socialization is the focus of Part 3. Unchanged from the previous edition, Part 3 contains the pioneering articles on the subject by Elinor Ochs, Bambi Schieffelin, Susan Philips, and Shirley Brice Heath. Part 4 contains chapters on language and power, an important aspect of linguistic anthropology that was touched on in several of the contributions in Part 2. A variety of ethnographic contexts and social constructions are represented here, including gender, race, occupational hierarchy, familial relationships, and sexuality. New to this edition, and reinforcing the textbook nature of the book, are study questions for each chapter. These questions help students understand the material within and between the chapters and point to ways of deepening the discussions of critical issues in the field.