Katowicka szkoła socjolingwistyki. Od mikroobserwacji do ujęć dyskursywno-komunikacyjnych

The article presents main ideas which originated and have been developed in the sociolinguistic school at the University of Silesia. The school was born in the 1970s and its origins are associated with the name of Władysław Lubaś, the true founder of the Silesian sociolinguistics. The article presents the issue of the socalled sociolinguistic breakthrough and Lubaś’s own theoretical conceptions which were taken up and further developed by his followers. It also discusses the status of sociolinguistics as a research method, specificity of the language in Silesian cities and of spoken language research, the issue of vernacular as a language of identity, the problem of Silesian bilingualism, theoretical issue of diglossia and, finally, research on everyday language and on the language of Silesian younger generation.