This is an introduction to those aspects of sociolinguistics broadly described as the sociology of language; the effect of language and dialect differences on society.

Beginning with a general description of the social consequences of several languages being used in one society, Ralph Fasold moves on to discuss 'diglossia', the phenomena by which social functions are assigned to languages and dialects in a predictable manner. Other aspects of the subject covered here include social attitudes towards various languages and dialects, the social forces which influence multilingual...

A companion to the author's Sociolinguistics of Society, this textbook examines the influence of social interaction on language use, and discusses a variety of facts about language from the commonplace to the exotic.

This collection of different perspectives on language variation serves as a companion volume to New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English.

Twenty-four linguists analyze natural and social differences in language form, use, and attitudes.

The study of language variation in social context continues to hold the attention of a large number of linguists. This research is promoted by the annual colloquia on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English' (NWAVE). This volume is a selection of revised papers from the NWAVE XI, held at Georgetown University. It deals with a number of items, some of which have often been discussed, others that have been less emphasized. The first group of articles in the volume center on a frequent theme: speech communities as the essential setting for understanding variation in language. Earlier work in...