Concepts and methods for integrating language typology and sociolinguistics

Abstract

This paper presents the building blocks of a comprehensive framework for the typological study of linguistic adaptation, i.e. how languages change in relation to the socio-historical and environmental contexts in which they are used. We showcase a battery of concepts and methods that are geared towards systematically comparing sociolinguistic environments and linguistic structures through the study of communities in social contact. We show that these concepts and methods can be used to investigate sociolinguistic correlates of linguistic diversity and language change in at least three ways: (1) to unravel causal factors related to language change, (2) to create datasets simultaneously addressing selection of communities, sociolinguistic features, and linguistic features, and (3) to formulate generalizations from empirically-grounded cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparisons.

This paper presents the building blocks of a comprehensive framework for the typological study of linguistic adaptation, i.e. how languages change in relation to the socio-historical and environmental contexts in which they are used. We showcase a battery of concepts and methods that are geared towards systematically comparing sociolinguistic environments and linguistic structures through the study of communities in social contact. We show that these concepts and methods can be used to investigate sociolinguistic correlates of linguistic diversity and language change in at least three ways: (1) to unravel causal factors related to language change, (2) to create datasets simultaneously addressing selection of communities, sociolinguistic features, and linguistic features, and (3) to formulate generalizations from empirically-grounded cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparisons.