This volume offers a comprehensive treatment of the historical developments underpinning our present understandings of the relationship between language and the social by integrating the study of language with key strands of sociological theory.

Glyn Williams has authored or co-authored fourteen books, including Sociolinguistics: A Sociological Critique (1992) and French Discourse Analysis: The Method of Poststructuralism (1999).

Preface ............................................................................................................. i

CHAPTER 1: THEORY AS METADISCOURSE ................................................. 1

CHAPTER 2: EARLY SOCIAL SCIENCE ............................................................ 28

CHAPTER 3: MARXISM AND LANGUAGE ..................................................... 51

CHAPTER 4: FUNCTIONALISM AND LANGUAGE ......................................... 71

CHAPTER 5: INERACTIONISM AND LANGUAGE .......................................... 84

CHAPTER 6: ANTI-FUNDATIONALISM ..........................................................109

CHAPTER 7: POST-STRUCTURALISM .............................................................126

CHAPTER 8: CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY .........................................................154

CHAPTER 9: CRITICAL REALISM AND DISCOURSE .......................................179

CHAPTER 10: SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND SOCIAL THEORY ........................... 206

BIBLIOGRAPHY: ...............................................................................................232