The Third Wave in Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistic variation is most widely known for its correlations with broad social categories, particularly as it represents the spread of linguistic change through and across communities. These patterns, however, are the tip of the variation iceberg. Variation offers up a robust social-semiotic system capable of indexing the full range of a community’s social concerns, and of changing with those concerns. The Third Wave approach to variation is based in the understanding that the social-indexical potential of variation is central to the social functioning of language. This course will examine the social meaning of variation up close, and trace the relation between local meaning and the formation of abstract social categories. Topics will cover the nature of stylistic practice, the role of variation in social change, the sources of variables, and the range of indexical functions of variation from affect to stance to persona construction.