Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm

Publication date: January 2019Source: Language & Communication, Volume 64Author(s): Johannes WoschitzAbstractWhat separates classical variationism from recent 'social-semiotic' approaches is its commitment to clearly distinguishable linguistic and social spheres. This distinction, as argued in this paper, is constructed through a juxtaposition of a social patterning of linguistic factors, and other social factors, which, when narrowly construed as changes from above, hinge on the conscious awareness of a linguistic feature. Recently, such a dichotomy has been called into question, since sociolinguists have begun theorising social meaningfulness as a more complex phenomenon that goes beyond the traditional 'unconscious/conscious' dichotomy that seems to underlie such a distinction. ...

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