Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 3 - (Language in Society) by William Labov (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Written by the world-renowned pioneer in the field of modern sociolinguistics, this volume examines the cognitive and cultural factors responsible for linguistic change, tracing the life history of these developments, from triggering events to driving forces and endpoints.

• Explores the major insights obtained by combining sociolinguistics with the results of dialect geography on a large scale
• Examines the cognitive and cultural influences responsible for linguistic change
• Demonstrates under what conditions dialects diverge from one another
• Establishes an essential distinction between transmission within the community and diffusion across communities
• Completes Labov's seminal Principles of Linguistic Change trilogy

From the Back Cover

This third and final volume of the Principles of Linguistic Change set examines the cognitive and cultural causes responsible for linguistic change, and traces the history of these developments, from triggering events to driving forces and endpoints.

Labov draws upon the newly completed Atlas of North American English to look more deeply into questions of linguistic change, focusing on the cognitive factors that determine the capacity of the linguistic system to transmit information, and exploring social influences in the development of large-scale cultural patterns. The third volume also deals with the diffusion of change across dialect boundaries, and across racial and ethnic groups. It establishes an essential distinction between transmission within the community, which is dependent on child language acquisition, and diffusion across communities, which is dependent on adult learning.

This final installment in the Principles of Linguistic Change series builds upon the foundations established by the groundbreaking first two volumes. Volume 1 investigates the internal factors that control change, examining the regularity of sound change and reviewing the evidence for functional explanations of linguistic change. Volume 2 follows by presenting the social factors governing linguistic change and proposed models for the transmission and incrementation of change. Written by the pioneering researcher of sociolinguistic inquiry, Principles of Linguistic Change is an essential resource for researchers, scholars and students in the field.

Review Quotes

"The culminating volume in Labov's magnum opus on language variation and change will assure forever his indelible imprint on the field of linguistics. Thanks to Labov, the field should never be the same."
-- Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University

"William Labov completes his monumental study of sound change by examining the forces that drive divergence and convergence in neighboring communities. His impeccable attention to detail is illuminated, as always, by his sensitivity to the social, communal and personal motives that lie behind the ways in which we talk to one another."
-- J.K. Chambers, University of Toronto

"Labov's inexhaustible creative wellspring produces a fountain of insight and essential reading for all scholars concerned with language as a dynamic social organism. This volume assembles elements of his work into a grand mosaic: a work of science, but also a work of art."
-- Gregory R. Guy, New York University

About the Author

William Labov is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. His major studies include The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966), Sociolinguistic Patterns (1972), Language in the Inner City (1972), Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors (Wiley-Blackwell, 1994) and Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 2: Social Factors (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001). With S. Ash and C. Boberg, he published the Atlas of North American English in 2006.