Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts an overview of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Most subdisciplines of sociology have responded to the on-going changes in sociological theory. This tends to involve a reflexive orientation on the part of those sociologists associated with the various subdisciplines who continuously address theoretical issues within the context of the substantive issues associated with that subdiscipline. The book discusses speech variation and in particular the work of Labov. It considers the implications of the applied aspects of the orientations in a discussion of language planning. The book also discusses topics which many would relate to anthropological linguistics and psycholinguistics. It also considers the ethnography of communication and the heavy reliance on the concept of culture therein. This has considerable influence upon many sociolinguists and this is nowhere more evident than in the methodological emphasis of network analysis.