Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-px5tt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T16:05:51.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - From Dialectology to Sociolinguistics: A Short History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2025

Daniel Schreier
Daniel Schreier
Affiliation:
University of Zurich
Get access

Summary

In this chapter we trace the development of the field from its beginnings to the present. Before the start of sociolinguistics proper in the early 1960s, regional dialectologists had already made considerable efforts to explore the spatial dimension of language variation, using different methodologies to collect data on regional dialects. The impact of the so-called sociolinguistic turn is discussed with reference to Labov’s early work (on the island of Martha’s Vineyard and in New York City), and some principal findings and methods of early work in the field are introduced. We will take a first look at the subsequent waves of variationist sociolinguistics, social network theory and communities of practice, which entail a focus on individual speakers and their social grouping and ordering as well as their orientation and affiliation with other speakers in indexical relationships. The chapter concludes with some recent developments and a presentation of current research themes.

Keywords

Georg WenkerSurvey of English DialectsNORMsInternational Phonetic AlphabetLinguistic Atlas of New EnglandWilliam Labovsociolinguistic variablevernacularsocial networksindexicalityMartha’s VineyardDepartment Store Studyobserver’s paradox
Type
Chapter
Information
English Sociolinguistics
An Introduction
 , pp. 20 - 51
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Further Reading

Chambers, J. K. & Trudgill, P. (1998). Dialectology (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. (exact date unknown). “How I got into linguistics, and what I got out of it.” (www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/HowIgot.html). Accessed November 11, 2024.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1963). The social motivation of a sound change. Word, 19, 273–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, L. & Gordon, M. (2003). Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. doi:10.1002/9780470758359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreier, D. (2013). Collecting Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Data. In: Schlüter, J & Krug, M., eds., Research Methods in Language Variation and Change (Studies in English Language Series). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 17–39.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×