2025/10/01 by Rhys J. Sandow, Jack Grieve, Rose Stamp +1 · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Multilingual Education and Policy #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0954394525100628
openalex publication_date 2025/10/01 · openalex created_date 2026/01/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/02
Abstract In this paper, we advocate for the analysis of lexical variation being central to variationist sociolinguistics. We demonstrate that lexical variation is systematic and argue that this systematicity must be accounted for by a comprehensive variationist theory that explains the general causes and mechanisms of language variation and change. We present three empirical studies, which focus on lexical variation in Anglo-Cornish, British Sign Language, and online American English. These studies differ greatly in terms of their methods and results, but each reaffirms that lexis can be studied rigorously and informatively within the variationist paradigm, extending our understanding of language variation and change.