Types of sociolinguistics

As any science with a serious history behind and the number of researchers ever growing sociolinguistcis has developed in many directions trying to cover the manifold sphere where language is used. Therefore at present stage we can speak about a number of branches of sociolinguistics:

Microsociolinguistics (referred to by some scholars as sociolinguistics proper) studies language processes in small social groups.According to Florian Coulmas, micro-sociolingustics investigates how social structure influences the way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social attributes such as class, sex, and age.

Macrosociolinguistics (or sociology of language) studies processes in big social groups – states, regions etc. It deals with what societies do with their languages, that is, attitudes and attachments that account for the functional distribution of speech forms in society, language shift, maintenance, and replacement, the delimitation and interaction of speech communities. William Labov has described the sociology of language as follows: it deals with large-scale social factors, and their mutual interaction with languages and dialects. There are many open questions, and many practical problems associated with the decay and assimilation of minority languages, the development of stable bilingualism, the standardization of languages and the planning of language development in newly emerging nations.

Synchronic sociolinguistics studies relations between language and social institutes as they are at a given period.

Diachronic sociolinguistics studies the development of the language as inseparably linked to social development.

Theoretical sociolinguistics studies basic problems and laws concerning the relationship between language and society.

Experimental sociolinguistics obtains empirical data proving theoretical schemes.

Applied sociolinguistics solves practical problems of language teaching and acquisition, language policy.

In present-day research, sociolinguistics is often classified as a part of applied linguistics, or the two are largely equated. It seems that many linguists think of linguistics which is relate to society as necessarily applied. However, sociolinguistics does not have to be applied but in many areas is purely theoretical. Many areas of sociolinguistics are potentially utilizable in an applied way to the solution of real-world difficulties and problems. For example, workers in interactional sociolinguistics have often been concerned with the way in which linguistic interaction may be involved in the maintenance of social inequality and discrimination. Equally, work in the ethnography of speaking has been employed in attempts to elucidate problems of cross-cultural miscommunication.