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This single-volume guide equips students of sociolinguistics with a full set of methodological tools including data collection and analysis techniques, explained in clear and accessible terms by leading experts. It features project suggestions, troubleshooting tips, and data assessment across diverse languages.
* Explores an array of anthropological and scientific methods that cover the full spectrum of contemporary sociolinguistics, from the study of style and discourse analysis to the study of phonetics
* Details the types of data available, and explains collection methods ranging from sociolinguistic interviews to linguistic landscapes
* Provides comprehensive coverage of data analysis, subdivided into segments on linguistic and socio-cultural techniques, and linked to numerous languages
* Includes useful summaries, seasoned advice and troubleshooting tips, ideas for research projects, and a full directory of supplementary reading
List of contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgments xii
Symbols for Vowels Used in This Volume xiii
Articulatory Position of Vowels Used in This Volume xiv
Introduction 1
Janet Holmes and Kirk Hazen
1 A Historical Assessment of Research Questions in Sociolinguistics 7
Kirk Hazen
Part I Types of Data and Methods of Data Collection 23
2 Sociolinguistic Interviews 25
Michol Hoffman
3 Written Surveys and Questionnaires in Sociolinguistics 42
Erik Schleef
4 Experimental Methods in Sociolinguistics 58
Katie Drager
5 Computer-mediated Communication and Linguistic Landscapes 74
Jannis Androutsopoulos
Part II Methods of Analysis 91
Focusing on Features of Language from a Sociolinguistic Perspective 92
6 Sociohistorical Analysis 93
Terttu Nevalainen
7 Corpus Linguistics in Sociolinguistics 107
Paul Baker
8 Phonetic Analysis in Sociolinguistics 119
Erik R. Thomas
9 Phonological Considerations in Sociophonetics 136
Paul Kerswill and Kevin Watson
10 Morphosyntactic Analysis in Sociolinguistics 149
Julia Davydova
11 Vocabulary Analysis in Sociolinguistic Research 163
Michael Adams
12 Doing Discourse Analysis in Sociolinguistics 177
Janet Holmes
13 Words and Numbers: Statistical Analysis in Sociolinguistics 194
Gregory R. Guy
Focusing on Aspects of Sociocultural Context in Analyzing Language 211
14 Anthropological Analysis in Sociolinguistics 213
Alexandra Jaffe
15 Conversation Analysis in Sociolinguistics 230
Paul Drew
16 Geographical Dialectology 246
David Britain
17 Speech Communities, Social Networks, and Communities of Practice 262
Robin Dodsworth
18 Analyzing Sociolinguistic Variation in Multilingual Contexts 276
Rajend Mesthrie
19 Social Context, Style, and Identity in Sociolinguistics 290
Nikolas Coupland
20 Researching Children's Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence 304
Carmel O'Shannessy
Index 325
About the author
Janet Holmes holds a personal Chair in Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her sociolinguistics teaching focuses on workplace discourse, New Zealand English, and language and gender. She is Director of the Wellington Language in the Workplace (LWP) project and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Her many publications include The Handbook of Language and Gender (edited with M. Meyerhoff, Wiley-Blackwell, 2003), Leadership, Discourse and Ethnicity (with M. Marra and B. Vine, 2011), and An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Fourth Edition (2013).
Kirk Hazen is Professor of Linguistics and director of the West Virginia Dialect Project at West Virginia University. He is the author of Dialect Change and Maintenance on the Outer Banks (with W. Wolfram and N. Schilling-Estes, 1998), Identity and Ethnicity in the Rural South: A Sociolinguistic View through Past and Present Be (2000), and An Introduction to Language (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).
Summary
This single-volume guide equips students of sociolinguistics with a full set of methodological tools including data collection and analysis techniques, explained in clear and accessible terms by leading experts. It features project suggestions, troubleshooting tips, and data assessment across diverse languages.
Report
"This book is an invaluable aid for student researchers eager to produce high-quality, impactful sociolinguistic research. The editors of this volume have met their goal of providing the student with the theoretical framework, historical background, and methodological tools required to execute an array of different research endeavors within the field." ( LINGUIST List , 8 December 2014)
