Handbook of Language Variation & Change

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. The book begins with an examination of the methodologies employed by linguists working in linguistic variation and change, and then addresses the levels of linguistic structure that have been the main foci of work in the field. The volume presents views of linguistic variation in the diverse contexts that give it meaning and significance, across generations, social strata, and domains of interaction. It further covers variation through geographical space, and language and dialect contact from a variationist perspective, while also considering the implications that research in different types of societies may have for work in the field. Each section begins with an introduction by the editors which sets out the boundaries of the field and places each of the chapters into perspective. This Handbook allows the next generation of academics to perpetuate all of these fields of study and explore them with the kind of depth unimaginable to their predecessors.