Motivational relevancies: some methodological reflections on sociolinguistic practice

About the book: Sociolinguistics and Social Theory brings together new critical overviews of the interface between language, social structure and social action. A wide range of theoretical and methodological traditions are represented: variationist and ethnographic sociolinguistics, conversation and interaction analysis, discourse analysis, social semiotics and ideological linguistics, as well as sociology and social theory itself. The book proposes a new agenda for sociolinguistic theory, in the broadest sense, and debates the theoretical grounding of different research methods. Contributors include Frederick Erickson, David Graddol, Christian Heath, Monica Heller, John Heritage, Gunther Kress, Per Linell, Michael Lynch, Miriam Meyerhoff, Lesley Milroy, Jonathan Potter, Ben Rampton, Celia Roberts, Richard Watts, John Wilson and Ruth Wodak. Edited by some of the biggest names in Sociolinguistics with an impressive list of contributors. Includes the concepts and perspectives of several of the most influential modern theorists of society and social action including: Bakhtin, Foucault, Habermas, Sacks, Goffman, Bourdieu and Giddens. Sociolinguistic themes covered, include: - social motivations for language variation and change - language, power and authority - language and ageing - language, race and class - language planning