Research Methods in Sociolinguistics: A Practical Guide

Research Methods in Sociolinguistics: A Practical Guide
Copyright
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Symbols for Vowels Used in This Volume
Articulatory Position of Vowels Used in This Volume
Introduction
How the Book Is Organized
Summary of the Content of the Different Chapters
1 A Historical Assessment of Research Questions in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Implementation
Cross-references
Conclusion
Part I Types of Data and Methods of Data Collection
2 Sociolinguistic Interviews
Introduction
Developing Research Questions
Methods of Data Collection and Analysis
Entering the Community
Observing, Interviewing, and Recording
Equipment
Components of the Sociolinguistic Interview
Records and Writing Up
3 Written Surveys and Questionnaires in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Developing a Questionnaire
Writing Questions/Items
Structuring the Questionnaire
Testing the Questionnaire
Administering the Questionnaire
Processing and Evaluating the Questionnaire
4 Experimental Methods in Sociolinguistics
The Initial Stages
Matched-Guise Technique: What Social Information Do Listeners Attribute to a Speaker Based Only on Hearing Their Voice?
Identification Tasks: Can Expectations about a Speaker Affect How a Listener Will Hear Their Speech?
After Data Collection
Ethics in Experimental Work
5 Computer-mediated Communication and Linguistic Landscapes
Introduction
Data Collection in Computer-mediated Communication Research
Data Collection in Linguistic Landscapes Research
A Note on Research Ethics
Part II Methods of Analysis
Focusing on Features of Language from a Sociolinguistic Perspective
6 Sociohistorical Analysis
The Past Is a Foreign Country?
Approaching the Past
Implementation
Analyzing Change
7 Corpus Linguistics in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Corpus Linguistics
Building a Corpus
Research Questions
Comparing the Speech of Younger and Older Adults
8 Phonetic Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Implementation
9 Phonological Considerations in Sociophonetics
Introduction
What Is the Difference between “Internal” and “External” Factors?
The Phonological Variable
Implementation: How Do Phonological Concerns Affect Sociolinguistic Variation?
10 Morphosyntactic Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Implementation
11 Vocabulary Analysis in Sociolinguistic Research
Introduction
Lexicography
12 Doing Discourse Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Doing Discourse Analysis
Developing Research Questions
Collecting the Data
Transcribing the Data
Analyzing the Data
Qualitative Analysis
13 Words and Numbers: Statistical Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Quantitative Approaches to Generalization
Statistical Inference: The Significance of Significance
Statistical Modeling
Conclusion
Focusing on Aspects of Sociocultural Context in Analyzing Language
14 Anthropological Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
Ethnographic Data Collection and Its Implications for Analysis
Regularities and Variation
The Complexity of Context
Language Ideologies and Indexicality
Analytical Challenges
A Data Example
Analysis
15 Conversation Analysis in Sociolinguistics
Introduction
The Research Process
Interactional Consequences of Different Action Constructions: Some Illustrations
Another Illustration of the Sequential (Interactional) Consequences of Different Action Designs
16 Geographical Dialectology
The Dialectologist in Space
Traditional Dialect Geography
Geolinguistic Dialectology
Reviewing the Methodological Process: Weighing up and Compromising
17 Speech Communities, Social Networks, and Communities of Practice
Introduction
Speech Communities
Social Networks
Communities of Practice
18 Analyzing Sociolinguistic Variation in Multilingual Contexts
Introduction
Central Concepts in Multilingual Research
Data Collection for Multilingual Communities
Multilingualism and Code-switching
Language Endangerment in Multilingual Contexts
Conclusion
19 Social Context, Style, and Identity in Sociolinguistics
What Is Style?
Styling Identities
The Macro and the Micro
Choosing a Context and Data for Analysis
20 Researching Children’s Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence
Introduction
Background and Motivation for Research on Children ’ s Sociolinguistic Development
Some Methods for Investigating Children’s Sociolinguistic Competence
Conclusion
Index