Sociolinguistic surveys: The state of the art

been continuously developed and refined. Any paper on the state of the art of sociolinguistic surveys, therefore, invites the accusation of disciplinary in-sularity. There is, after all, an extensive literature on social science survey methods. Those who wish to learn about survey design, instrument con-struction, sampling, data collection, and data analysis can choose among dozens of books for instruction (see, for example, Jahoda, Deutsch, and Cook 1951; Lindzey and Aronson 1969; Moser 1958; Warwick and Lininger 1975). While it is true that sociolinguistic surveys adapt the technology found in social science surveys more generally, one can justify their separate treatment on several grounds. For one thing, sociolinguistic surveys, like surveys under-taken from any disciplinary perspective, reflect the theoretical orientations and empirical concerns of their practitioners. Thus the aims of sociolinguistic surveys can be distinguished from those of other types of survey. Second, some of the techniques associated with sociolinguistic surveys, if not originating with such surveys, have been developed in connection with them