Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm

Abstract

What separates classical variationism from recent ‘social-semiotic’ approaches is its commitment to clearly distinguishable linguistic and social spheres. This distinction, as argued in this paper, is constructed through a juxtaposition of a social patterning of linguistic factors, and other social factors, which, when narrowly construed as changes from above, hinge on the conscious awareness of a linguistic feature. Recently, such a dichotomy has been called into question, since sociolinguists have begun theorising social meaningfulness as a more complex phenomenon that goes beyond the traditional ‘unconscious/conscious’ dichotomy that seems to underlie such a distinction. Giving up this dichotomy inevitably challenges the whole ‘narrow interface between language and society’ that underlies the orthodox Labovian framework, representing an ontological breach with important consequences.