Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation

Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation presents a comprehensive, intermediate level examination of Language Variation and Change, the branch of sociolinguistics concerned with linguistic variation in spoken and written language.

• Represents the most up-to-date coverage of the history, developments, and methodologies of variationist sociolinguistics
• Addresses all aspects of linguistic variation, including areas not usually covered in introductory texts, e.g. the phonological, morpho-syntactic, discourse/pragmatic
• Outlines comparative sociolinguistic approach, data collection, methodological issues; and addresses state-of-the-art contemporary quantitative methods and statistical practice
• Features cutting-edge research at an appropriate level to facilitate student learning
• Engages students throughout with a variety of pedagogical features, including Mini Quizzes to test comprehension, extensive Exercises at the end of each chapter, the opportunity to do hands-on quantitative analysis of a never-before published data set, and Notes and Tips that offer insight into conducting sociolinguistic research. Extra materials and answers to the exercises are available at www.wiley.com/go/tagliamonte

Keywords: Sociolinguistics, language variation and change, language contact, dialect, speech communities, Labov