The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics

Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy is Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where he teaches undergraduate courses on English Sociolinguistics, Dialectology, and the History of English, as well as sociolinguistic research methods for postgraduate students. His books include Diccionario de Sociolingüística (with P. Trudgill, 2007), Metodología de la Investigación Sociolingüística (with M. Almeida, 2005), and Geolingüística (1999).
 
Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre is Professor in English Historical Linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where he teaches on the History of the English Language and Research Methods in Language Variation and Change. His books include Sociolinguistica Histórica (2007), Sociolinguistics and the History of English (with J.M. Hernández-Campoy, 2005) and Variation and Linguistic Change in English (with J.M. Hernández-Campoy, 1999).

Written by an international team of leading scholars, this groundbreaking reference work explores the nature of language change and diffusion, and paves the way for future research in this rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field.
* Features 35 newly-written essays from internationally acclaimed experts that reflect the growth and vitality of the burgeoning area of historical sociolinguistics
* Examines how sociolinguistic theoretical models, methods, findings, and expertise can be used to reconstruct a language's past in order to explain linguistic changes and developments
* Bridges the gap between the past and the present in linguistic studies
* Structured thematically into sections exploring: origins and theoretical assumptions; methods for the sociolinguistic study of the history of languages; linguistic and extra-linguistic variables; historical dialectology, language contact and diffusion; and attitudes to language

The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics features 35 newly-written essays that explore how sociolinguistic theoretical models, methods, findings, and expertise can be applied to the process of reconstruction of a language s past in order to account for diachronic linguistic changes and developments.

Plates x
 
Figures x
 
Maps xii
 
Tables xiii
 
Notes on Contributors xv
 
Preface xxvii
Teresa Fanego
 
Introduction 1
J. Camilo Conde-Silvestre & Juan M. Hernández-Campoy
 
Part I Origins and Theoretical Assumptions 9
 
1 Diachrony vs Synchrony: the Complementary Evolution of Two (Ir)reconcilable Dimensions 11
Jean Aitchison
 
2 Historical Sociolinguistics: Origins, Motivations, and Paradigms 22
Terttu Nevalainen and Helena Raumolin-Brunberg
 
3 Social History and the Sociology of Language 41
Robert McColl Millar
 
Part II Methods for the Sociolinguistic Study of the History of Languages 61
 
4 The Application of the Quantitative Paradigm to Historical Sociolinguistics: Problems with the Generalizability Principle 63
Juan M. Hernández-Campoy and Natalie Schilling
 
5 The Uniformitarian Principle and the Risk of Anachronisms in Language and Social History 80
Alexander Bergs
 
6 The Use of Linguistic Corpora for the Study of Linguistic Variation and Change: Types and Computational Applications 99
Pascual Cantos
 
7 Editing the Medieval Manuscript in its Social Context 123
Nila Vázquez and Teresa Marqués-Aguado
 
8 Medical, Official, and Monastic Documents in Sociolinguistic Research 140
Laura Esteban-Segura
 
9 The Use of Private Letters and Diaries in Sociolinguistic Investigation 156
Stephan Elspass
 
10 The Use of Literary Sources in Historical Sociolinguistic Research 170
K. Anipa
 
11 Early Advertising and Newspapers as Sources of Sociolinguistic Investigation 191
Carol Percy
 
Part III Linguistic and Socio-demographic Variables 211
 
12 Orthographic Variables 213
Hanna Rutkowska and Paul Rössler
 
13 Phonological Variables 237
Anna Hebda
 
14 Grammatical Variables 253
Anita Auer and Anja Voeste
 
15 Lexical-Semantic Variables 271
Joachim Grzega
 
16 Pragmatic Variables 293
Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen
 
17 Class, Age, and Gender-based Patterns 307
Agnieszka Kielkiewicz-Janowiak
 
18 The Role of Social Networks and Mobility in Diachronic Sociolinguistics 332
Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre
 
19 Race, Ethnicity, Religion, and Castes 353
Rajend Mesthrie
 
Part IV Historical Dialectology, Language Contact, Change, and Diffusion 367
 
20 The Teleology of Change: Functional and Non-Functional Explanations for Language Variation and Change 369
Paul T. Roberge
 
21 Internally- and Externally-Motivated Language Change 387
Raymond Hickey
 
22 Lexical Diffusion and the Regular Transmission of Language Change in its Sociohistorical Context 408
Brian D. Joseph
 
23 The Timing of Language Change 427
Mieko Ogura
 
24 Innovation Diffusion in Sociohistorical Linguistics 451
David Britain
 
25 Historical Dialectology: Space as a Variable in the Reconstruction of Regional Dialects 465
Anneli Meurman-Solin
 
26 Linguistic Atlases: Empirical Evidence for Dialect Change in the History of Languages 480
Roland Kehrein
 
27 Historical Sociolinguistic Reconstruction Beyond Europe: Case Studies from South Asia and Fiji 501
Matthew Toulmin
 
28 Multilingualism, Code-switching, and Language Contact in Historical Sociolinguistics 520
Herbert Schendl
 
29 The Impact of Migratory Movements on Linguistic Systems: Transplanted Speech Communities and Varieties from a Historical Sociolinguistic Perspective 534
Daniel Schreier
 
30 Convergence and Divergence in World Languages 552
Roger Wright
 
Part V Attitudes to Language 569
 
31 Sociolinguistics and Ideologies in Language History 571
James Milroy