Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the relationship between language and society, exploring how language use is influenced by social factors such as cultural norms, context, and the identities of its speakers. It investigates the variations in language—including dialects, accents, and styles—that occur across different social groups defined by class, gender, ethnicity, and age. By examining how people's speech patterns change in different social situations and how language reflects and reinforces social structures, sociolinguistics provides critical insights into both linguistic diversity and the complex workings of human communities.

1. Introduction to Sociolinguistics
   1. Defining Sociolinguistics
      1. Scope and Aims of Sociolinguistics
      2. Relationship to Linguistics
      3. Relationship to Sociology
      4. Relationship to Anthropology
      5. Interdisciplinary Nature
      6. Micro-sociolinguistics
      7. Macro-sociolinguistics
   2. Core Concepts
      1. Speech Community
         1. Definitions and Criteria
         2. Boundaries and Overlap
         3. Community of Practice
      2. Communicative Competence
         1. Grammatical Competence
         2. Sociolinguistic Competence
         3. Pragmatic Competence
         4. Strategic Competence
      3. Idiolect
      4. Dialect
         1. Regional Dialects
         2. Social Dialects
         3. Temporal Dialects
      5. Language
         1. Language vs. Dialect
         2. Mutual Intelligibility
         3. Political and Social Factors in Language Definition
      6. Linguistic Variable
         1. Phonological Variables
         2. Morphological Variables
         3. Syntactic Variables
         4. Lexical Variables
      7. Variants
         1. Standard Variants
         2. Non-standard Variants
      8. The Observer's Paradox
         1. Definition and Implications
         2. Strategies to Minimize Observer Effect
         3. Recording Technology Considerations
   3. Historical Development
      1. Early Dialectology
         1. Dialect Geography
         2. Isoglosses
         3. Linguistic Atlas Projects
      2. The Emergence of Variationist Sociolinguistics
         1. Quantitative Methods
         2. Urban Studies
         3. Statistical Approaches
      3. Key Foundational Scholars
         1. William Labov
            1. Martha's Vineyard Study
            2. New York City Study
            3. Theoretical Contributions
         2. Dell Hymes
            1. Ethnography of Communication
            2. SPEAKING Framework
         3. John Gumperz
            1. Interactional Sociolinguistics
            2. Code-switching Research
         4. Basil Bernstein
            1. Elaborated and Restricted Codes
         5. Joshua Fishman
            1. Language Maintenance and Shift