Sociolinguistic Variation and Change

This volume presents a selection of Peter Trudgill’s major works since 1990 in the field of sociolinguistics. The book deals with a number of different but related topics. One theme is the role of English in the world, and the nature of standard English or Englishes. Another is language as a human issue, reflecting the author’s concern that the results of sociolinguistic research should be made available to assist, wherever possible, with the solution of educational and other real-world problems. A third focus is on the problematic and interconnected relationships between nation and language and dialect, looking closely at the linguistic characteristics of the varieties concerned. The final major emphasis is on sociohistorical linguistics, in particular the relationship between colonial and motherhood varieties of English; dialect contact and language contact; and the sociolinguistically informed dialectology of linguistic change. All the chapters are concerned, albeit in different proportions, with linguistic theory, linguistic description, and the applications of linguistics. The overall unifying theme of the book is linguistic variation and, as the diachronic outcome of linguistic variation, linguistic change.