The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, written by a distinguished international roster of contributors, reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline in its multifaceted pursuits. It is a convenient, hand-held repository of the essential knowledge about the study of language variation and change.Written by internationally recognized experts in the field.Reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline.Discusses the ideas that drive the field and is illustrated with empirical studies.Includes explanatory introductions which set out the boundaries of the field and place each of the chapters into perspective.

J. K. Chambers is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. He is the author ofSociolinguistic Theory: Language Variation and Its Social Significance (second edition, Blackwell 2003), and co-author with Peter Trudgill ofDialectology (second edition, 1998), as well as other books and scores of articles.

Peter Trudgill is Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He is author ofSociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (1996), andDialects of England (second edition, Blackwell 1999), and co-editor with Laurie Bauer ofLanguage Myths (1999). He is editor of Blackwells Language in Society series.

Natalie Schilling-Estes is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is co-author ofHoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue (1997) andAmerican English (Blackwell 1998), both with Walt Wolfram.

List of Contributors.

Introduction.

Studying Language Variation: An Informal Epistemology: J.K. Chambers.

Part I: Methodologies:.

Field Methods.

Introduction: Natalie Schilling-Estes.

1. Entering the Community: Field Work: Crawford Feagin.

2. Language with an Attitude: Dennis Preston.

3. Investigating Variation and Change in Written Documents: Edgar W. Schneider.

4. Inferring Variation and Change from Public Corpora: Laurie Bauer.

Evaluation.

Introduction: J.K. Chambers.

5. The Quantitative Paradigm: Robert Bayley.

6. Implicational Scales: John R. Rickford.

7. Instrumental Phonetics: Erik R. Thomas.

Part II: Linguistic Structure:.

Introduction: Natalie Schilling-Estes.

8. Variation and Phonological Theory: Arto Anttila.

9. Investigating Chain Shifts and Mergers: Matthew Gordon.

10. Variation and Syntactic Theory: Alison Henry.

11. Discourse Variation: Ronald Macaulay.

Part III: Social Factors:.

Time.

Introduction: Natalie Schilling-Estes.

12. Real and Apparent Time: Guy Bailey.

13. Child Language Variation: Julie Roberts.

14. Patterns of Variation, Including Change: J.K. Chambers.

Social Differentiation.

Introduction: Peter Trudgill.

15. Investigating Stylistic Variation: Natalie Schilling-Estes.

16. Social Class: Sharon Ash.

17. Sex and Gender in Variationist Research: Jenny Cheshire.

18. Ethnicity: Carmen Fought.

Domains.

Introduction: Peter Trudgill.

19. Language and Identity: Norma Mendoza-Denton.

20. The Family: Kirk Hazen.

21. Communities of Practice: Miriam Meyerhoff.

22. Social Networks: Lesley Milroy.

23. The Speech Community: Peter L. Patrick.

Part IV: Contact:.

Introduction: Peter Trudgill.

24. Space and Spatial Diffusion: David Britain.

25. Linguistic Outcomes of Language Contact: Gillian Sankoff.

26. Koineization and Accommodation: Paul Kerswill.

Part V: Language and Societies:.

Introduction: J.K. Chambers.

27. Linguistic and Social Typology: Peter Trudgill.

28. Comparative Sociolinguistics: Sali Tagliamonte.

29. Language Death and Dying: Walt Wolfram.

Index