A methodological approach to the history of the sociolinguistics of the Spanish language
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Florentino Paredes
Abstract
Currently, the study of linguistic change is understood to examine the process linked to the most general aspects of linguistic variation. It seems inexcusable today to focus on sociolinguistic methodology by adopting a purely sociolinguistic approach to the history of language. Sociolinguistics is the discipline that has best explained the mechanisms of change in language, but the incorporation of this approach into diachronic research is not free from difficulties, one of which is the relative ignorance of how past societies functioned, as well as the limitations of relying exclusively on written texts. Given these circumstances, it is imperative to add a wide range of documental material to traditionally used literary sources, and especially important to include those that are closest to oral speech as well as those representing lower and less common registers. In this process we must remember that, over and above the work carried out by institutions, it has been the progressive rates of literacy in society, promoted by general schooling, that has contributed through written texts to the establishment of the linguistic standard.
© 2008 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Editorial
- Introduction: a sociolinguistic panorama of Spanish in Spain
- A methodological approach to the history of the sociolinguistics of the Spanish language
- The sociolinguistics of Castilian dialects
- Spanish and historical dialect in Aragon
- Sociolinguistic issues of Madrid
- The sociolinguistics of Spanish in Extremadura
- Sociolinguistic aspects of Murcian Spanish
- Sociolinguistic patterns of Andalusian Spanish
- Sociolinguistics aspects of Spanish in the Canary Islands
- Immigrants in Spain: sociolinguistic issues
- Book reviews
- L'Alguer (Alghero), a Catalan linguistic enclave in Sardinia
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Editorial
- Introduction: a sociolinguistic panorama of Spanish in Spain
- A methodological approach to the history of the sociolinguistics of the Spanish language
- The sociolinguistics of Castilian dialects
- Spanish and historical dialect in Aragon
- Sociolinguistic issues of Madrid
- The sociolinguistics of Spanish in Extremadura
- Sociolinguistic aspects of Murcian Spanish
- Sociolinguistic patterns of Andalusian Spanish
- Sociolinguistics aspects of Spanish in the Canary Islands
- Immigrants in Spain: sociolinguistic issues
- Book reviews
- L'Alguer (Alghero), a Catalan linguistic enclave in Sardinia
