The Social Stratification of English in New York City

by William Labov

One of the first accounts of social variation in language, this groundbreaking study founded the discipline of sociolinguistics, providing the model on which thousands of studies have been based. In this second edition, Labov looks back on forty years of sociolinguistic research, bringing the reader up to date on its methods, findings and achievements. In over thirty pages of new material, he explores the unforeseen implications of his earlier work, addresses the political issues involved, and evaluates the success of newer approaches to sociolinguistic investigation. In doing so, he reveals the outstanding accomplishments of sociolinguistics since his original study, which laid the foundations for studying language variation, introduced the crucial concept of the linguistic variable, and showed how variation across age groups is an indicator of language change. Bringing Labov's pioneering study into the 21st century, this classic volume will remain the benchmark in the field for years to come.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction

498 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

William Labov was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics, and "one of the most influential linguists of the 20th and 21st centuries".
Labov was a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and pursued research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. He retired in 2015 but continued to publish research until his death in 2024.

Reviews

[Zach Blume · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun to look at beginning of an entire field of knowlege...Labov's work remains current; although the science is out of date, the social implications of language, class, and race are just as impressive as I imagine they were when he published the work. Unfortunately, this is not one of his most accessible works, as it's a scholarly work dealing in large part with statistics.