Corpus Linguistics for Sociolinguistics: A Guide for Research

Corpus Linguistics for Sociolinguistics is an accessible and practical introduction to how corpus linguistics can be used to study language variation and change. This book introduces sociolinguistic concepts, sociolinguistic theory and up-to-date research from key areas of variation and change, including age, gender, style, varieties, language online, language and the media, historical change, and diachronic variation, and explores them from a corpus linguistics perspective. Further, the book illustrates the basics of corpus-linguistic methods and demonstrates the use of a vast range of freely available corpora suited to the study of sociolinguistic variation and change. With its in-chapter exercises and discussion questions, and online supplementary resources, this text is key reading for students and researchers of corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics.