Labov: A Guide for the Perplexed

William Labov (b. 1927) has been a driving force in linguistics for over four decades. Throughout North America, and in much of the rest of the world, his name is synonymous with sociolinguistics.

This new Guide for the Perplexed summarizes Labov''s work in a number of subfields, including historical linguistics, discourse analysis and not least sociolinguistics. It also sketches a broader context...