Types of Variation

“Much as in social science overall, compartmentalization in linguistics is increasingly giving way to integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. The current volume nicely illustrates what such an approach may mean for the study of language variation, be it historical, cross-linguistic, or regional. In particular, this approach does away with the myth of linguistic homogeneity, which has conveniently shielded generations of langue- or competence-oriented linguists from the intricacies of linguistic reality. Inspired by the significant advances we have seen in language typology, sociolinguistics, dialectology (especially in the domain of dialect syntax), historical linguistics (in particular, grammaticalization research), and corpus linguistics, the current volume seeks to explore the interfaces between three of these subdisciplines dealing with variation within and across languages by pulling together their core findings to their mutual benefit. The volume editors are to be commended for having pursued this exciting new line of linguistic research and for having compiled a volume which is no doubt soon going to be recognized as a milestone publication for the ­ still nascent ­ integrated, or dynamic, approach to the study of language variation.”