Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Contributors -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Studying Language Variation: An Informal Epistemology -- 1 Sociolinguistics as a Discipline -- 2 Language as a Social Phenomenon -- 3 Linguistics and Sociolinguistics -- 4 Communicative Competence and the Language Faculty -- 5 Interdependence of Language and Communication -- 6 The Sociolinguistic Enterprise -- References -- Part I: Data Collection -- 1: Entering the Community: Fieldwork -- 1 Planning the Project -- 1.1 Library research -- 1.2 Ethnography -- 1.3 Linguistic variables -- 1.4 Recording equipment -- 1.5 Institutional Review Board approval -- 1.6 Self-presentation of the fieldworker -- 2 The Sociolinguistic Interview -- 2.1 Selecting speakers -- 2.2 Sample size -- 2.3 Interview protocols and questionnaires -- 2.4 More formal styles: Reading passages, word lists, minimal pairs -- 2.5 During the interview -- 2.6 After the interview -- 2.7 Ethics -- 3 Participant Observation -- 4 Rapid and Anonymous Observations -- 5 Life after Fieldwork -- References -- 2: Data in the Study of Variation and Change -- 1 A Brief History of Data in Sociolinguistics -- 2 Sociolinguistics, Corpora, and Data Sharing -- 3 What You Put In Impacts What You Get Out -- 3.1 Metadata -- 3.2 Annotations -- 3.3 Extracted variables and measurements -- 4 Processing and Storing Speech Data -- 4.1 Centralized archives and web accessibility -- 4.2 Linked layers of data -- 5 Moving Ahead -- References -- 3: Investigating Historical Variation and Change in Written Documents: New Perspectives -- 1 How to Listen without Hearing -- 2 Assessing the Sources: Text Types and their Relative Proximity to Speech -- 2.1 Some basic requirements for texts to be useful for a variationist analysis -- 2.2 Categorization of text types -- 2.3 Transcripts (Category 1: Recorded).

2.4 Recall protocols (Category 2: Recalled) -- 2.5 Private letters by semi-literate writers (Category 3: Imagined) -- 2.6 Other autograph records (Category 3: Imagined) -- 2.7 Contemporary commentaries (Category 4: Observed) -- 2.8 Literary sources (Category 5: Invented) -- 3 Problems -- 3.1 Representativeness -- 3.2 Validity -- 3.3 Analyzing different levels of language organization -- 3.4 Analyzing phonetics with written records -- 3.5 Choosing between qualitative and quantitative approaches -- 3.6 Determining extralinguistic contextual parameters -- 4 Conclusion: Pitfalls and Advantages -- References -- Part II: Evaluation -- 4: The Quantitative Paradigm -- 1 Theoretical Principles -- 2 Quantitative Analysis -- 2.1 Multivariate analysis with Varbrul -- 2.2 Significance testing with Varbrul -- 2.3 Interpreting the results of Varbrul analysis -- 2.4 Limitations of Varbrul -- 3 General Logistic Regression Models -- 3.1 Mixed models -- 4 Multivariate Analysis: Summary -- 5 Future Directions -- Acknowledgment -- References -- 5: Sociophonetics -- 1 Scope of Sociophonetics -- 2 Vowel Analysis -- 3 Consonantal Analysis -- 4 Prosodic Analysis -- 5 Voice Quality -- 6 Perception -- 7 The Bigger Picture -- References -- 6: Comparative Sociolinguistics -- 1 Variationist Sociolinguistics -- 2 The Comparative Method -- 3 Target of Investigation - Sisters Under the Skin? -- 4 The Importance of Proportional Analysis -- 5 Constrasting Constraints Across Varieties -- 6 Using Constraint Hierarchies to Disentangle Source Dialects -- 7 Contextualizing Variation in Diachrony -- 8 Operationalizing Constraints on was/were Variation -- 9 Grammatical Person -- 10 Type of Subject -- 11 The Effect of Negation -- 12 Interpreting Similarities and Differences -- 13 Using Factor Weights to Measure Grammatical Change -- 14 Contextualizing Variation in Grammatical Change.

15 Operationalizing Constraints on Grammaticalization -- 16 Language Change Across Varieties -- 17 Language Change in Apparent Time -- 18 Validating Accountability and Proportional Analysis -- References -- 7: Language with an Attitude -- 1 Language and People -- 2 The Linguistic Detail -- 3 Attitudes and Folk Perceptions -- 4 Toward a General Folk Theory -- References -- Part III: Linguistic Structure -- 8: Variation and Syntactic Theory -- 1 Sentences and Utterances -- 2 Wh-Movement and Pied Piping -- 3 Verb Cluster Word Order in Dutch -- 4 Optional Processes and Variable Processes -- 5 Sentence-Grammars and Utterance Variation -- References -- 9: Investigating Chain Shifts and Mergers -- 1 Chain Shifts and Mergers as Alternatives -- 2 The Study of Mergers -- 2.1 What does "merged" mean and how can we tell? -- 2.2 When is a merger not a merger? -- 3 The Study of Chain Shifting -- 3.1 What does it mean to preserve distinctions? -- 3.2 What does it mean for changes to be interrelated? -- 4 Shifts and Mergers in Progress -- References -- 10: Discourse Variation -- 1 Ethnographic Studies -- 2 Sociolinguistic Studies -- 3 Qualitative Sociolinguistic Studies of Discourse -- 4 Quantitative Studies of Discourse Features -- References -- Part IV: Language and Time -- 11: Real Time and Apparent Time -- 1 Apparent-time Evidence in Martha's Vineyard -- 2 The Use of Apparent-time Evidence -- 2.1 The generality of apparent time -- 2.2 The stability of individual vernaculars -- 2.3 The possibility of age-grading -- 3 The Use of Real-time Evidence -- 3.1 The use of existing evidence -- 3.2 Re-surveys -- 4 Progress with Caution -- Acknowledgment -- References -- 12: Child Language Variation -- 1 History of Child Language Variation -- 2 Current Issues in Child Language Variation -- 3 Variable Input: Child-directed Speech (CDS) -- 4 Looking Forward -- References.

13: Adolescence -- 1 Defining Adolescence -- 2 The Role of Adolescents in Language Change -- 2.1 The adolescent peak -- 2.2 Dialect levelling and innovation -- 3 Adolescence and Social Categorisation -- 3.1 Ethnic diversity -- 4 Adolescence and Social Meaning -- 5 Future Directions -- References -- 14: Patterns of Variation including Change -- 1 Change Entails Variation But Not Vice Versa -- 2 Phonological Variables Tend to Be Socially Diffuse -- 3 Speech Communities Share Evaluations, Not Usage -- 4 Grammatical Variables Tend to Be Class Markers -- 5 Women Use Fewer Nonstandard Variants than Men -- 6 Real Time Change Compares Two (or More) Historical Moments -- 7 Variation Is Discernible at Every Stage -- 8 Apparent Time Usually Mirrors Real Time -- 9 Change Diffuses Down the Urban Hierarchy -- 10 Change Is Gradual Between Contiguous Age Groups -- 11 Impetus For Change Is Usually Social, Not Linguistic -- References -- Part V: Social Differentiation -- 15: Investigating Stylistic Variation -- 1 Attention to Speech -- 1.1 Limitations of the Attention to Speech approach -- 2 Audience Design -- 2.1 Questions concerning Audience Design -- 3 Speaker Design -- 4 Cautions regarding third wave studies -- References -- 16: Social Class -- 1 Sociological Background -- 2 Treatments of Social Class -- 2.1 The New York City department store survey -- 2.2 The Lower East Side -- 2.3 Philadelphia: The neighborhood study -- 2.4 Norwich, England -- 2.5 Anniston, Alabama -- 2.6 Sydney, Australia -- 2.7 Panama City, Panama -- 3 The Linguistic Market -- 4 Subcommunities -- 5 Social Class and Linguistic Variation -- 6 Understanding Social Class -- References -- 17: Gender, Sex, Sexuality, and Sexual Identities -- 1 History -- 2 Meaning -- 3 Sex as an Independent Variable -- 4 Interactional Discourse -- 5 Perception -- 6 Connections -- References -- 18: Ethnicity.

1 What Is Ethnicity? -- 2 Linguistic Resources and Ethnic Identity -- 2.1 Linguistic repertoires -- 2.2 Variation at different levels of language -- 2.3 Mixed varieties: Mapping complicated identities onto complicated forms -- 2.4 The role of "place" -- 2.5 The effect of interlocutors -- 3 The Role of Interethnic Contact -- 3.1 Contact between members of dominant and minority ethnic groups -- 3.2 Contact among minority ethnic groups -- 3.3 Crossing: "borrowing" someone else's ethnicity -- 4 Language Change and Ethnicity -- 4.1 The focus of research on language in minority ethnic groups -- 4.2 Minority ethnic group participation in (local) European-American sound changes -- 4.3 Other studies of change in ethnic minority communities -- 5 Myths, Realities, and Directions for the Future -- 5.1 Regional differences in minority ethnic dialects -- 5.2 Other areas for future study -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Part VI: Domains -- 19: Social Networks -- 1 The Concept of Social Network -- 2 Social Networks and Language Variation: Methods and Findings -- 2.1 Measuring social network structure -- 2.2 Network analysis in small-scale communities: Some examples -- 3 Language Maintenance and Shift in Bilingual Communities -- 4 Weak Ties and Theories of Language Change -- 5 Social Network, Social Class, and Mobility -- References -- 20: Communities of Practice -- 1 Defining the Community of Practice -- 1.1 Distinguishing the community of practice from other frameworks -- 2 The Community of Practice in the Analysis of Variation and Change -- 3 The Community of Practice in Broader Perspective -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 21: Constructing Identity -- 1 Identity Constructed -- 1.1 Relationships -- 1.2 Domains and levels of identification -- 2 How Language Is Used to Construct Identity -- 2.1 Identity, agentivity and habitus -- 2.2 Indexicality.

3 Constructing Identity on Multiple Levels.