Sociolinguistic variation: Theories, methods, and applications (review)

Sociolinguistics is practiced across multiple disciplines with differing agendas, objects of research, and points of origin. Irrespective of the discipline, one linguist clearly stands apart for his many contributions. This is Walt Wolfram. In 2007, as a tribute to Wolfram, Robert Bayley and Ceil Lucas edited the book reviewed here, an accessibly written selection of articles that clearly reflect the honoree's wide range of contributions. Hence, it provides a useful survey of variationist practice for 'students of linguistic variation' (1), the intended audience.

Themes include interactions with core linguistics (RALPH FASOLD and DENNIS PRESTON, LISA GREEN, GREGORY GUY, CEIL LUCAS, KIRK HAZEN, ERIK THOMAS), issues of research practice (MICHAEL MONTGOMERY, NATALIE SCHILLING-ESTES, IDA STOCKMAN, SALI TAGLIAMONTE), language acquisition and education (ROBERT BAYLEY, CAROLYN TEMPLE ADGER and DONNA CHRISTIAN, ANGELA RICKFORD and JOHN RICKFORD), and style, ideology, and concerns of public interest (JOHN BAUGH, ALLAN BELL, RONALD BUTTERS, A. FAY VAUGHN-COOKE). The contributors listed here are an accomplished group.

The editors organized the volume into three parts: 'Theories', with eight articles; 'Methods', with three; and 'Applications', with six. The book ends with ROGER W. SHUY's humorous 'Afterword' on his long friendship with Wolfram. The book is handsomely produced with numerous tables and illustrations. All references are conveniently placed at the end along with an extensive index. As far as I can tell, there are next to no typos, with one exception. Wolfram did not study Puerto Rican Spanish in New York City (79). He studied the English of Puerto Ricans living in New York.

Within variationist sociolinguistics, one may identify two general approaches: analysis as discovery technique and analysis as quantitative test of theory. In either, the key linguistic object is the sociolinguistic variable. Though definition provokes debate, a variable may best be defined as two or more ways of saying or accomplishing the same thing. This field of research involves, then, the statistical study of speakers' selections. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. If theory goes toward explaining discovered facts, we must know what type of facts are to be explained. This requires description. Variationists recognize that achieving descriptive adequacy is a profound challenge. Moreover, the reliance on recorded speech, the incorporation of social factors into analysis, and the role of stochastic generalizations in theory building distinguish the field. On these points, we find a source for undeniable conflicts with some linguistic colleagues. References to this emerge periodically throughout the book. Some respond optimistically (Bayley, 136; Guy, 5; Green, 25; Hazen, 85) and others do not (Bell, 109; Thomas, 216). My sense, however, is that this relationship to linguistics distinguishes variationist sociolinguistics from other sociolinguistic disciplines.

The articles that may be of most interest to linguists appear in Part 1, 'Theories'. The opening article by Guy on phonology is a clear illustration of analysis as test of theory. The article is organized around the two questions of what phonology can do for variationist research and what variationists can do for phonological theory. Drawing on studies of final-consonant deletion in English and Portuguese, Guy notes that variationist findings often receive a straightforward account within established phonological principles such as the obligatory contour principle. To this, he adds a crucial point: 'variable processes display the same patterns of occurrence and non-occurrence that are found for categorical alternations, and hence are likely governed by the same principles and generated by the same processes of grammar' (6). In other words, patterned performance is not epiphenomenal. It is a probabilistic instantiation of a speaker's underlying grammar. Guy also convincingly shows how variationist research may provide unique means for resolving debates within phonological theory. This work demonstrates how quantitative methodology may be applied to linguistic issues...