ABSTRACT
The idea of an urban linguistic survey was dear to the heart of Barbara Strang for a variety of reasons, and she was instrumental in setting up the Tyneside Linguistic Survey (TLS). This chapter points out some of the characteristics of the Labovian paradigm with which dissatisfaction was felt, and thereby justify the rather radically different approach taken by the TLS. It reflects on further improvements and alterations suggested in the light of work now being carried out under the aegis of the Survey of Sheffield Usage (SSU), whose methods are themselves in part derived from and influenced by those of TLS. The linguistic variables chosen by Labov for investigation were both few in number (five) and phonological in nature. The concept of variety is central to TLS method, and the first step in analysis is to characterise the speech varieties collected by means of interviews.
