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"This is an excellent
Handbook, providing a sophisticated, yet accessible treatment of a wide range of issues in variationist sociolinguistics. Anyone, from the curious beginner to the seasoned pro, will profit from consulting this book."
Don Chapman, Brigham Young University, USA Incorporating the wealth of developments in this interdisciplinary and dynamic field over the last decade, this second edition ensures that the
Handbook remains the authoritative reference volume on the study and analysis of language variation and change. Seven new chapters have been added, while the remainder have undergone thorough revision and updating to reflect advances and new perspectives in each topic covered. The
Handbook is accessibly structured by theme, covering topics including data collection and evaluation, linguistic structure, language and time, social differentiation, language contact, and language domains. Bringing together an experienced, international editorial and contributor team, it provides an unrivalled learning, teaching and reference tool for researchers and students in sociolinguistics. The volume is also a vital resource for scholars in related disciplines requiring a reliable overview of the central topics and methods in the study of language variation and change. This new edition offers a convenient and accessible repository of essential knowledge that demonstrates the continuing vitality of the discipline.
List of contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Contributors xiii
Preface to the Second Edition xv
Studying Language Variation: An Informal Epistemology 1
J.K. Chambers Part I Data Collection 17 1 Entering the Community: Fieldwork 19
Crawford Feagin 2 Data in the Study of Variation and Change 38
Tyler Kendall 3 Investigating Historical Variation and Change in Written Documents: New Perspectives 57
Edgar W. Schneider Part II Evaluation 83 4 The Quantitative Paradigm 85
Robert Bayley 5 Sociophonetics 108
Erik R. Thomas 6 Comparative Sociolinguistics 128
Sali A. Tagliamonte 7 Language with an Attitude 157
Dennis R. Preston Part III Linguistic Structure 183 8 Variation and Syntactic Theory 185
Ralph W. Fasold 9 Investigating Chain Shifts and Mergers 203
Matthew J. Gordon 10 Discourse Variation 220
Ronald Macaulay Part IV Language and Time 237 11 Real Time and Apparent Time 239
Patricia Cukor-Avila and Guy Bailey 12 Child Language Variation 263
Julie Roberts 13 Adolescence 277
Sam Kirkham and Emma Moore 14 Patterns of Variation including Change 297
J.K. Chambers Part V Social Differentiation 325 15 Investigating Stylistic Variation 327
Natalie Schilling 16 Social Class 350
Sharon Ash 17 Gender, Sex, Sexuality, and Sexual Identities 368
Robin Queen 18 Ethnicity 388
Carmen Fought Part VI Domains 407 19 Social Networks 409
Lesley Milroy and Carmen Llamas 20 Communities of Practice 428
Miriam Meyerhoff and Anna Strycharz 21 Constructing Identity 448
Scott F. Kiesling Part VII Contact 469 22 Space, Diffusion and Mobility 471
David Britain 23 Linguistic Outcomes of Bilingualism 501
Gillian Sankoff 24 Koineization 519
Paul Kerswill 25 Supraregionalisation and Dissociation 537
Raymond Hickey Part VIII Sociolinguists and Their Communities 555 26 Community Commitment and Responsibility 557
Walt Wolfram Postscript 577
Natalie Schilling and Jack Chambers Index 579
About the author
J.K. Chambers is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. He is the author of
Sociolinguistic Theory: Linguistic Variation and its Social Significance, Revised Edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) and
Dialectology, Second Edition (with P. Trudgill, 1998), as well as numerous other books and scores of articles. He works extensively as a forensic consultant and maintains a parallel vocation in jazz criticism, including a volume on the bebop pianist Richard Twardzik (2008) and a prize-winning biography of Miles Davis,
Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998).
Natalie Schilling is Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is the author of
American English: Dialects and Variation, Third Edition (with W. Wolfram, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016) and
Sociolinguistic Fieldwork (2013). An expert in language variation and change in American English, she conducts workshops on sociolinguistics and forensic linguistics for an array of audiences within and beyond academia, and is a noted consultant in both these fields. Among her works for general audiences is
English in America: A Linguistic History, an audio-video lecture series for
The Great Courses (2016).
Summary
Reflecting a multitude of developments in the study of language change and variation over the last ten years, this extensively updated second edition features a number of new chapters and remains the authoritative reference volume on a core research area in linguistics.
