Designed for beginning undergraduates studying for degrees in English, this textbook provides an introduction to a range of sociolinguistic theories and the insights they provide for a greater understanding of varieties of English, past and present. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative approaches to sociolinguistic variation, the book provides a systematic overview such topics as: *'English' as a social and as a linguistic concept *English speech communities *Social and regional dialectology in relation to varieties of English *English historical sociolinguistics, from Old English to late Modern English ..
The Acquizition of Sociolinguistics Competence in a Study Abroad Context
Drawing on cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of a range of sociolinguistic variables in L2 French, this volume explores the relationship between 'study abroad' and the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation patterns by the advanced second language learner. Within a variationist paradigm, the findings illuminate a number of issues in relation to the role of speaker identity, gender, and L2 exposure and contact.
Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Second Language Learning and Teaching
The volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of key issues in second language learning and teaching, adopting as a point of reference both psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives.
Corpus and Sociolinguistics: Investigating age and gender in female talk (Studies in Corpus Linguistics)
Age is by far the most underdeveloped of the sociolinguistic variables in terms of research literature. To-date, research on age has been patchy and has generally focused on the early life-stages such as childhood and adolescence, ignoring, for the most part, healthy adulthood as a stage worthy of scrutiny. This book examines the discourse of adulthood and accounts for sociolinguistic variation, with regards to age and gender, through the exploration of a 90,000 word age-and gender-differentiated spoken corpus of Irish English.
Authority and Identity: A Sociolinguistic History of Europe Before the Modern Age
This is a history of Europe unlike any other: a theory-informed history of its language use. The 'rise' and 'fall' of languages are recounted, along with an analysis of why periods of linguistic diversity are followed by hegemony. How did the sociolinguistic past differ from the sociolinguistic present?
