ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses the theoretical aspects of speech variation and it is appropriate to begin with a consideration of the concept of speech community which is the frame within which all such studies are located. The concept of community is a case in point. It is a concept which has a long history in sociology and yet, in many respects, it appears to have developed within sociolinguistics with a somewhat different meaning. Labov is not alone among sociolinguists in placing the emphasis on socialisation. Many claim that the different varieties of male and female speech are a consequence of different patterns of socialisation. Within structural functionalism the tendency is to relate these different patterns to different gender roles and identities as well as to different features of the normative structure. This, of course, is consistent with the view that sex language differences are merely a manifestation of this entire process.
