Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation presents athorough and practical description of current sociolinguisticmethodology while recognizing that methodological decisions cannever be separated from questions of theory.
* * Presents a thorough and practical description of currentsociolinguistic methodology.
* Considers a range of issues including speaker selection, datacollection, social considerations, phonological and syntacticalvariation, style-shifting and code-switching.
* Recognizes that methodological decisions can never be separatedfrom questions of theory.
* Stresses the need for the entire research process from theinitial design of the project to the interpretation of results tobe grounded in theoretically defensible positions.
* Shows how the research paradigm established by a fewinfluential pioneers has been fruitfully expanded by exciting newtrends.