Making Waves

Making Waves tells the human story of an academic field based on one-to-one interviews with 43 of the most famous scholars in Variationist Sociolinguistics. Explanations of concepts, ideas, good practice and sage advice come directly from the progenitors of the discipline.

• An authentic, inside story about the origins of Sociolinguistics as Language Variation and Change, recording the context and spirit of sociolinguistics
• Gives students access to the views on language variation of major sociolinguists such as Bill Labov and Peter Trudgill
• Offers a human story of an academic field, and is written in the style of a novel, offering complete accessibility with minimal in-group terminology
• Provides a timely audio archive of the reminiscences of the major Sociolinguists, including Labov, Fasold, Milroy, Trudgill, and Wolfram, with a companion website featuring 400 audio clips from the interviews. Visit the site at www.wiley.com/go/tagliamonte/makingwaves

Preface viii

1 Where It Begins 1

2 Synchronicity and Sociolinguistics 25

3 A Crescendo of Research 53

4 Roots of Variationist Thinking 74

5 Sociolinguistics in the Street 88

6 Why Statistics Is in Your Head 107

7 Sociolinguistics From the Heart 121

8 Branching Out; Bursting at the Seams 131

9 Why Do You Like Variation? 158

10 Launching the Future 169

Afterword 185

Appendix A List of Interviews 186

Appendix B VSLX Family Tree 187

References 194

Index 202

"Making waves is an interesting first attempt at writing the history of those that were inspired by Labov's groundbreaking work. One can only hope that more studies in this interesting area will follow." (Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 2016) Sali A. Tagliamonte is a Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is author of Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation (2006) and Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), among other books and has published on African American varieties; British, Irish, and Canadian dialects; as well as child, teen, television, and Internet language.

Making Waves: The History of Variationist Sociolinguistics tells the human story of an academic field based on one-on-one interviews with 43 of the most famous scholars in Variationist Socioinguistics. It is a first person historiography; the narrative emerges chronologically in a compilation of events and developments that are interspersed with personal reminiscences taken directly from the audio-recorded interviews. Explanations of concepts, ideas, good practice and sage advice come directly from the progenitors of the discipline. The book offers a synthesis of research, fieldwork and teaching experience but also brings to the fore a collective philosophy of life in relationship to intellectual practice. The essence of Variationist Sociolinguistics unfolds in the story, exposing linguistic insights, social motivations and poignant personal experiences; students and scholars alike are provided with a greater understanding of the history and development of an academic field as well as an endearing story giving access to the views on language variation of major sociolinguists such as Bill Labov and Peter Trudgill.

Written as a novel, the book has minimal in-group terminology, making it of real interest to people interested in language, the development of science, or historical non-fiction, as well as sociolinguists and language scientists more generally.