Talk:Sociohistorical linguistics

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Some critique possibly directed at the historiography of the field rather than the wikipedia article.

The article seems to neglect the original connections between "sociolinguistics" and historical linguistics by stating that the field started in 1980s (cf. e.g. ~100 years earlier as placed in Koerner 1991). Otherwise the disciplinary differences between sociohistorical linguistics and normal sociolinguistics need to be better demarcated.

Based on the explanations given, the article seems to confuse the historical dimension of language (can be understood as diachrony) with language states based in past history (where truly, only written sources are available). Otherwise, typical sociolinguistic investigations very often focus precisely on historical aspects in looking for causes of linguistic change (cf. e.g. basic concepts "apparent time", "real time", "change in progress").

I did not change anything in the article yet, but I propose these changes to be put to action.

Ptinits12 (talk) 16:43, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

Ref. Konrad Koerner 1991. Toward a History of Modern Sociolinguistics. American Speech Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 57-70 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/455434 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ptinits12 (talk • contribs) 16:46, 30 October 2012 (UTC)