Introduction

Abstract Sociolinguists range widely in their interests, and the term sociolinguistics has very broad application. Some observers draw a distinction between “the sociology of language, ‘with a focus on sociological matters, and “sociolinguistics, with a focus on language. In many instances the same inquiry and the same analysis may be viewed by some as sociological and by others as linguistic. The definition of sociolinguistics offered in the standard linguistics lexicon (Crystal 1991) is broad: “A branch of linguistics which studies all aspects of language and society.’‘In the definition, the word and portrays sociolinguistics at its broadest. Only the initial position of the word language suggests any priority, while all suggests the potential scope of inquiry. Preferring the preposition in to the conjunction and, one leading sociolinguistics journal bears the title Language in Society, suggesting a preference for studies whose principal focus rests on language rather than society. Another journal, more interested in larger questions of language use, calls itself the International Journal of the Sociology of Language.