ABSTRACT
The heuristic utility of unifying a set of fluctuating linguistic variants within the structural construct of a linguistic variable and correlating the relative use of different variants with co-varying social and linguistic factors has now been reified in a full range of sociolinguistic studies. There is even now a canonical set of phonological and morphosyntactic variables that are traditionally investigated in variation studies, so that variables such as unstressed -ing fronting, syllable-coda cluster reduction, copula/auxiliary absence, and inflectional -s absence have earned honor-roll status as paradigmatic linguistic variables. The chapter focuses on two quite different kinds of methodological challenges in uncovering variables: one readily quantifiable variable that illustrates extraction and coding challenges, and one that is a more elusive, rarely occurring form that presents a primary qualitative challenge for uncovering linguistic variables. The two cases offer dramatically different instances of linguistic variables, including both quantitative and qualitative challenges in uncovering and describing linguistic variables.
