Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation (Language in Society) - Tapa dura

'Milroy and Gordon give us the first comprehensive survey of research methods that takes in the breadth and scope of sociolinguistics as it has come to maturity. They relate analytic methods to research goals and always keep an eye on matters of interpretation and evaluation that give meaning to quantitative and statistical results. This book is a valuable resource not only for students but also for experienced researchers.' J. K. Chambers, University of Toronto 'Given the accelerating, visible growth of sociolinguistics, it is surprising that there are practically no books dedicated to methods. This is a welcome exception. But it is more than a discussion of techniques; it is firmly grounded in current sociolinguistic theory. The combination of an experienced fieldworker and analyst, and an up-and-coming scholar has resulted in one of the most useful texts in variation studies to be published in the last decade.' Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University

Questions of how to access and analyze actual language use are central to the study of language in its social context. Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation presents a thorough and practical description of current sociolinguistic methodology while recognizing that methodological decisions can never be separated from questions of theory. The result is a critical account that stresses the need for the entire research process, from the initial design of the project to the interpretation of results, to be grounded in theoretically defensible positions. Milroy and Gordon show how the research paradigm established by a few influential pioneers has been fruitfully expanded by new trends. Sociolinguistics considers issues of speaker selection and data collection: social dimensions of linguistic variation: syntactic and phonological variation: and style-shifting and code-switching. This book is a vital resource for helping readers design their research and evaluate the research of others.