Sociolinguistic Theory presents a critical synthesis of sociolinguistics, centering on the study of language variation and change.

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• Synthesizes the most important descriptive and theoretical findings concerning linguistic variation from the last forty years.
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• Provides an integrated framework for studying language variation and its social significance.
  
• Expands on the first edition's discussion of communicative competence and developmental sociolinguistics.
  
• Is written by one of the world's foremost scholars in the field of variation studies and includes data from his own work.