Is the study of language ideologically neutral? If so, is this study objective and autonomous? One of the most cherished assumptions of modern academic linguistics is that the study of language is, or should be, ideologically neutral. This professed ideological neutrality goes hand-in-hand with claims of scientific objectivity and explanatory autonomy. Ideologies of Language counters these claims and assumptions by demonstrating not only their descriptive inaccuracy but also their conceptual incoherence.

Introduction, John E. Joseph, Talbot J. Taylor; Part 1 Linguistic Ideologies; Chapter 1 Which is to be master? The institutionalization of authority in the science of language, Talbot J. Taylor; Chapter 2 That obscure object of desire: a science of language, Tony Crowley; Chapter 3 Ideologizing Saussure: Bloomfield's and Chomsky's readings of the Cours de linguistique générale, John E. Joseph; Chapter 4 Demythologizing sociolinguistics: why language does not reflect society, Deborah Cameron; Part 2 The Linguistics of Self-Image; Chapter 5 Celso Cittadini and the origin of the vernacular: the convergence of science and subjectivity, Michael T. Ward; Chapter 6 Ideology and the 'clarity' of French, Pierre Swiggers; Chapter 7 The ideological profile of Afrikaans historical linguistics, Paul T. Roberge; Part 3 Political Linguistics; Chapter 8 On freedom of speech, Roy Harris; Chapter 9 What are words worth? Language and ideology in French dictionaries of the revolutionary period, Pieter Desmet, Johan Rooryck, Pierre Swiggers; Chapter 10 'Reducing' Pacific languages to writings, Peter Mühlhäusler; Chapter 11 Theory of emergence: towards a historical-materialistic approach to the history of linguistics, Paul Laurendeau;