ABSTRACT
In Chapters 2-6 we examined the systematicity of variation in the speech of individuals, and saw that there are a number of different ways in which speaker style, or the choice of a particular linguistic code, or the use of different kinds of politeness routines, can be understood as part of an orderly relationship between language and society. In Chapter 7 we saw that the variation in how speakers of different ages in a single community use language is also revealing. We saw that age provides a useful synchronic measure through which we can draw inferences about the directions (if not the speed) of diachronic change.
