Sociolinguistic Research

Critical Sociolinguistic Research Methods is a guide to conducting concrete ethnographic and discourse analytic research projects, written by top scholars for students and researchers in social science fields. Adopting a critical perspective focusing on the role of language in the construction of social difference and social inequality, the authors walk the reader through five key moments in the life of a research project: composing research questions, designing the project, doing fieldwork, performing data analysis and writing academic texts or otherwise engaging in conversation with different types of social actors about the project. These moments are illustrated by colour-coded examples from the authors’ experiences that help researchers and students follow the sequential stages of a project. Clear and highly applicable, with a detailed workbook full of practical tips and examples, this book is a great resource for graduate-level qualitative methods courses in linguistics and anthropology, as well as methods courses in the humanities and social sciences that focus on the role of language in research. It is a timely text for investigating language issues that matter and have consequences for people’s lives.

Shortlisted for the LSA Leonard Bloomfield Book Award 2017 Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact provides a unique overview of international research projects, showcasing their positive outcomes and offering critical insights and constructive critiques into the meaning of 'impact' in contemporary research. The book includes: original findings from cutting-edge research from scholars such as Mary Bucholtz, Walt Wolfram and Peter Patrick; coverage of organisational contexts including education, government, justice, heritage, and the workplace; activities including after-school programmes, workplace training courses, social media campaigns, and video productions; application of research to professional practice including teaching (primary school to university), adjudication, police interviewing, and governmental policymaking; contributors' personal reflections on the research process and its outcomes, including constructive critiques of institutional definitions of impact. With chapters spanning research across five continents, Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact is essential reading for sociolinguistic researchers, students embarking on sociolinguistic research, and anyone interested in the practical application of research on language and society.

Shortlisted for the LSA Leonard Bloomfield Book Award 2017 Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact provides a unique overview of international research projects, showcasing their positive outcomes and offering critical insights and constructive critiques into the meaning of ‘impact’ in contemporary research. The book includes: original findings from cutting-edge research from scholars such as Mary Bucholtz, Walt Wolfram and Peter Patrick; coverage of organisational contexts including education, government, justice, heritage, and the workplace; activities including after-school programmes, workplace training courses, social media campaigns, and video productions; application of research to professional practice including teaching (primary school to university), adjudication, police interviewing, and governmental policymaking; contributors’ personal reflections on the research process and its outcomes, including constructive critiques of institutional definitions of impact. With chapters spanning research across five continents, Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact is essential reading for sociolinguistic researchers, students embarking on sociolinguistic research, and anyone interested in the practical application of research on language and society.

This book investigates our awareness and control of sociolinguistic features as they are embedded in social and grammatical systems.

This edited volume provides up-to-date, succinct, relevant, and informative discussion about methods of data collection in sociolinguistic research. It covers the main areas of research design, conducting research, and sharing data findings with longer chapters and shorter vignettes written by a range of top sociolinguists, both veteran and emerging scholars. Here is the one-stop, go-to guide for the numerous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods that are used in sociolinguistic research, ensuring that Data Collection in Sociolinguistics will be not only useful in the classroom but also as a reference tool for active researchers. For more information, visit sociolinguisticdatacollection.com.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 5.5 (CH) d.h. 1.5 (DEU), University of Zurich (Englisches Seminar), course: Introduction to Linguistics, Part I (Seminar Group 6), language: English, abstract: This paper sets out to examine the use of the adjectives "drunk" and "drunken". According to the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of "drunk" is "Affected by alcohol to the extent of losing control of one’s faculties or behaviour", and that of "drunken" reads "Drunk or intoxicated". Consequently, their use on the lexical level seems to be the same and, therefore, interchangeable. Both expressions are used in temporary English and are not antiquated. Thus, the question may arise whether other factors determine the application of each of these adjectives. The field of sociolinguistics deals with such questions of variation in language or more precisely in the use of different expression denotating the same meaning, while it does not simply assess different utterances as either correct or incorrect. Sociolinguists like Sali Tagliamonte rather examine language influencing variables like discourse features, social patterns or linguistic patterns, of which the two latter ones will serve as the investigative frame of the two adjectives "drunk" and "drunken". In order to probe thoroughly into the usage of these two words, this paper, firstly, delivers a look into previous research on, and into the theoretical background of the respective adjectives. Secondly, the original data, namely the British National Corpus, and the gained random samples from this corpus are characterized, whereafter the methodology of coding for social (accent, sex and social grade) and linguistic (various syntactic functions) features is explained. The results and analysis of this coding for factors which may influence the usage of "drunk" and "drunken" are, thirdly, presented quantitatively and qualitatively in the two sections of social patterns and of linguistic patterns. These two analyses are discussed separately as well as in view of the respective other patterns to gain the deepest possible insight into the findings of this linguistic research. Finally, this paper is completed by a conclusion, which rounds off the linguistic intention to examine whether social and linguistic variables influence the usage or preference of the synonymous adjectives "drunk" and "drunken".

Critical Sociolinguistic Research Methods is a guide to conducting concrete ethnographic and discourse analytic research projects, written by top scholars for students and researchers in social science fields. Adopting a critical perspective focusing on the role of language in the construction of social difference and social inequality, the authors walk the reader through five key moments in the life of a research project: composing research questions, designing the project, doing fieldwork, performing data analysis and writing academic texts or otherwise engaging in conversation with different types of social actors about the project. These moments are illustrated by colour-coded examples from the authors’ experiences that help researchers and students follow the sequential stages of a project. Now in its second edition, this popular and original text has been revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in this field, including expanded sections on the centrality of the ethnographic gaze for the understanding of social processes, and on experiences of diversification in the communication of research results. Through the adoption of multimodal genres, authors share recent experiences of research presentations addressed to non-academic audiences, such as installations and photography, and interactive maps. Clear and highly applicable, with a detailed workbook full of practical tips and examples, this book is a great resource for graduate-level qualitative methods courses in linguistics and anthropology, as well as methods courses in the humanities and social sciences that focus on the role of language in research. It is a timely text for investigating language issues that matter and have consequences for people’s lives.

The second edition of Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications continues to provide up-to-date, succinct, relevant, and informative discussion about methods of data collection in sociolinguistic research. Written by a range of top sociolinguists, both veteran and emerging scholars, it covers the main areas of research design, conducting research, and sharing data findings. In addition to revisions of original material, this edition includes nine new vignettes covering such topics as collecting data from social media, conducting linguistic landscape research, forensic linguistic data collection, and working with transgender communities. A companion website, http://sociolinguisticdatacollection.com, provides enhanced pedagogical features such as discussion questions, activities, end-of-chapter exercises, and contributor videos. This volume is the one-stop, go-to guide for the numerous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods used in sociolinguistic research; it is the ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in sociolinguistic research, field methods and data collection.