ABSTRACT
The precepts that guide sociolinguistic research do not deviate much from those dictated by René Descartes in his seminal work A Discourse on Method.
The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; [. . .]. The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution. The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; [. . .]. And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.
