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Exploring Future Paths for Historical Sociolinguistics
Edited by Tanja Säily, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin and Anita Auer
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 7] 2017
► pp. 1–19

The future of historical sociolinguistics?

In this chapter we discuss the current achievements of historical sociolinguistics and highlight new insights provided by the contributions in the volume. Taking the essay by Nevalainen (2015) as a starting point, we consider the themes of crossing boundaries and bridging gaps between different levels of analysis and different paradigms, as well as proposing new paths for historical sociolinguistics as part of the wider field of digital humanities.

Keywords: historical sociolinguistics, language variation and change, layered simultaneity, informational maximalism, multidisciplinarity, digital humanities
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Purpose of the volume
    • 1.2 Nevalainen’s 2015 essay
  • 2.New insights
    • 2.1Methodological innovations
    • 2.2New data for historical sociolinguistic research
    • 2.3Theory: Bridging gaps, new challenges
  • 3.Conclusion: The future?
  • References
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.7.01sai
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