ABSTRACT
Interactional sociolinguistics, a qualitative, interpretive approach to the analysis of discourse, offers important insights into how gender and sexuality shape, and are shaped by, language use. This chapter provides an overview of the theories and methods that characterise work in this field. We review foundational and contemporary work to give an historical perspective on the field, while also highlighting diverse interactional contexts, including those related to employment and family. We demonstrate, through descriptions of key studies and presentation of sample analyses, how research in this tradition elucidates the interconnections among language, gender, and sexuality, as well as how these aspects of identity intersect with others. We consider the implications of methodological choices (such as transcription and playback), and introduce key analytic concepts (such as framing and the double bind). The chapter highlights interactional sociolinguistics as a productive approach for understanding how gender identity and sexuality may influence individuals’ patterns of language use, as well as how others interpret their intentions and evaluate their abilities, and how language functions as a resource to construct and negotiate multifaceted identities and relationships.
