Variationist Sociolinguistics

Acknowledgments x

Foreword xii

Series Editor’s Preface xiii

Preface xiv

List of Figures xvii

List of Tables xx

1 Sociolinguistics as Language Variation and Change 1

Sociolinguistics 1

The Linguistic Variable 3

Linguistic Change 8

The Principle of Accountability 9

Circumscribing the Variable Context 10

Evolution of the Linguistic Variable 15

The Importance of Accountability 19

Language Variation an...