Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics

Making Waves: The History of Variationist Sociolinguistics tells the human story of an academic field based on one–on–one interviews with 43 of the most famous scholars in Variationist Socioinguistics. It is a first person historiography; the narrative emerges chronologically in a compilation of events and developments that are interspersed with personal reminiscences taken directly from the audio–recorded interviews. Explanations of concepts, ideas, good practice and sage advice come directly from the progenitors of the discipline. The book offers a synthesis of research, fieldwork and teaching experience but also brings to the fore a collective philosophy of life in relationship to intellectual practice. The essence of Variationist Sociolinguistics unfolds in the story, exposing linguistic insights, social motivations and poignant personal experiences; students and scholars alike are provided with a greater understanding of the history and development of an academic field as well as an endearing story giving access to the views on language variation of major sociolinguists such as Bill Labov and Peter Trudgill.

Written as a novel, the book has minimal in–group terminology, making it of real interest to people interested in language, the development of science, or historical non–fiction, as well as sociolinguists and language scientists more generally.

Sali A. Tagliamonte is a Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is author of  Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation (2006) and Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation (Wiley–Blackwell, 2012), among other books and has published on African American varieties; British, Irish, and Canadian dialects; as well as child, teen, television, and Internet language.