Sociolinguistics is a dynamic field of research that explains the role and function of language in social life. This book offers the most substantial account available of the core contemporary ideas and arguments in sociolinguistics, with an emphasis on innovation and change. Bringing together original writing by more than twenty of the field's most influential international thinkers and researchers, this is an indispensable guide to the newest and most searching ideas about language in society. For researchers and advanced students it gives access to the field's most pressing issues and debates, as well as providing a platform for new initiatives in sociolinguistic research.

'This collection is clearly aimed at readers who already have a solid foundation in modern sociolinguistics and as such will likely stimulate new research directions. It should also prove useful to students of semiotics or linguistic historiography.' E. J. Vajda, Choice

Nikolas Coupland is an elected Fellow of both the UK Academy of Social Sciences and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has published more than 20 books and more than 150 articles and chapters on wide-ranging aspects of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. His volume The Handbook of Language and Globalization (2010) was the winner of the annual British Association for Applied Linguistics Book Prize.