Sociolinguistic theory

Description

Sociolinguistic Theory presents a critical synthesis of sociolinguistics, centering on the study of language variation and change. Since the inception of sociolinguistics more than three decades ago, the correlation of dependent linguistic variables with independent social variables has provided the theoretical core of the discipline. Chambers reviews the essential findings of Henrietta Cedegren, William Labov, Lesley Milroy and James Milroy, David Sankoff, Gillian Sankoff, Peter Trudgill, Walt Wolfram, and many others, and puts them into context both with the work of the numerous linguists who have followed their lead and with their intellectual forbears from Wilhelm von Humboldt and Louis Gauchat to Edward Sapir. The book opens with a discussion of the linguistic variable and its historical methodological and theoretical significance. Three central chapters are organized around the crucial social variables of social stratification, sex, and age. The final chapter considers the social and cultural purposes of linguistic variation.

First Sentence

This book is about language variation and its social significance.

Subjects

Series Statement

• Language in society

Other Editions

• Sociolinguistic theory: linguistic variation and its social significanceBlackwell1995-01-01
• Sociolinguistic TheoryBlackwell Publishers2002-05-01
• Sociolinguistic TheoryBlackwell Publishing Limited2002-06-01
• Sociolinguistic TheoryWiley & Sons, Incorporated, John2008-01-01
• Sociolinguistic theoryBlackwell2008-01-01