Linguistics & Language · Sociolinguistics
A topic within Sociolinguistics, itself one of 10 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
William Labov
Argues African American Vernacular English is a fully systematic, rule-governed grammar rather than illogical or degenerate speech, directly countering the deficit theory then used to justify low expectations in schools.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Peter Trudgill
Shows that in Norwich working-class non-standard speech carries a covert prestige among men that pulls their usage away from the standard even as women converge on it, and that self-report data mask this pattern because speakers misreport their own usage in the direction of the overt norm.