This Element documents the evolution of a research program that began in the early 1960s with the author's first investigation of language change on Martha's Vineyard. It traces the development of what has become the basic framework for studying language variation and change.
William Labov extends his widely used framework for narrative analysis to matters of greatest human concern: life and death.
This classic volume, by a well-known linguist, constitutes a systematic introduction to sociolinguistics, unmatched in the clarity and forcefulness of its approach, and to the study of language in its social setting.