Both sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics are concerned with the study of language in society. Sociolinguistics is concerned with how society is influenced by and influences language use. Anthropological linguistics describes this language interaction as it relates to the various peoples or cultural groups of the world. The traditional areas of linguistic study (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) are not studied or described in isolation from the person's experiences, cultural or social group memberships and / or cultural practices. Rather, the sociolinguist or anthropological linguist aims to describe language in terms of how it is lived by individuals and members of similar social or cultural groups. Sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics move beyond purely structural analysis of language and address the important concept that languages do not develop or exist independent of context.

Studying the relationships between language and culture or examining language in its social context can lead the linguist to investigate such important phenomena as: code-switching, language variation, bilingualism, creoles and language shift, culturally defined concepts such as kinship and language avoidance, discourse and conversation analysis. Linguists employ primarily qualitative research methodologies, typically ethnography and forms of discourse analysis, to gather sufficient data to enable the rigorous analysis and synthesis of information required to adequately describe language use, however survey methods are also used in sociolinguistics. An example of the kind of research question which lends itself to this type of study could include the analysis of language use by Aboriginal English speaking Indigenous children within a Standard Australian English speaking classroom environment. Sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics has special relevance for those language professionals required to work cross-culturally such as language teachers and speech pathologists. The application of these methodologies is equally relevant when either describing languages as spoken by individuals and groups of individuals or when describing aspects of language development and language disorder.

Current Textbooks

Coulmas, F. (ed.) (1997) The Handbook of Sociolinguistics Oxford: Blackwell

Duranti, A., (ed.) (2001) Linguistic Anthropology - A Reader. Cambridge, MA, Blackwell.

Wardaugh, R. (2005) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (5^th ed.) Oxford: Blackwell

Summary Written By

Judy Gould

School of International Studies

University of South Australia