The sociolinguistic turn of the 1960's has been remarkably
successful: variability of language is no longer an issue open to
debate. But studies of variation have by and large been restricted
to the level of expression. This volume offers a critique of
present day sociolinguistics, arguing that since meaning is
critical to all contexts of life in society, ignoring it has led to
a number of serious problems, foremost among them a mis-conception
of the nature of sociolinguistics itself. By examining the
possibility of systematic variation at the level of meaning, the
volume makes a positive contribution to opening up a debate about
the possibility of the neglected/ misrepresented notion of semantic
variation. Most chapters of the volume present an account of
certain aspects of an empirical research which strongly supports
the view that systematic variation in the choice of semantic
features occurs across different social groups. Mothers and their
young children less than four years old showed in their naturally
occurring conversation a highly systematic, statistically
significant, orientation to distinct styles of meaning, which
correlated with their social positioning, and/or with the gender of
the children. The comparison of kindergarten teachers' ways of
meaning with those of mothers' provides empirical proof that
teacher talk is an exaggerated version of middle class mothers'
talk. The volume is relevant on the one hand to theoretical issues
in linguistics and sociolinguistics and on the other, to any
serious discourse about equitable education.
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