ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the three methods of data collection: direct methods, indirect methods and the collection of pre-existing speech or text for further analysis of the social meaning of language. Once the data is collected, it is often analysed by identifying the main emerging themes. Finding out what people think or believe about language is a very exciting area of research, and it is crucial for sociolinguistics because language attitudes influence language use. Text-based guises are used when people investigate lexical or syntactic variables. When the focus is on accent features, properties of recorded speech are often manipulated to elicit attitudes to individual features. Research in this tradition investigates how the social information available to speakers and listeners is used to make sense of speech or specific linguistic features. Historical records provide information about perceptions and beliefs about language. In historical sociolinguistics, the term normative linguistics is frequently applied to this strand of research.
