A (language) work in progress: articulating English-language sociolinguistics and the oeuvre of Josiane Boutet

Abstract As someone on whom Josiane Boutet’s work has a significant influence, reading through the English-language translations brought together in this special issue inspires new connections between Boutet’s oeuvre and English-language sociolinguistic work. In this commentary, I explore some of the possibilities for such dialogue. I begin with the notion of “language practices”, linking it to the key concepts of “indexicality” and “contextualization cues” in the English-language literature. Following this, I look at the ways in which Boutet’s “language part of work” articulates with recent sociolinguistic work focusing on professional contexts. By way of conclusion, I consider the “language part of work” of sociolinguistics as a scientific domain, highlighting how the dominance of English in scientific publication may lead to prominent scholars who publish in other languages being under-cited and to key ideas going unrecognised, before suggesting that initiatives such as this special issue constitute a possible solution to this problem.