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Language and society is the study of the expression of social
variation and difference. The field usually called sociolinguistics
examines gender, social stratification (class, caste, rank, status),
regional dialects, speech style, social interaction, vernacular
and colloquial speech, slang, genres, and many other topics.
The general approach adopted toward the study of these phenomena is the ethnography of speaking or communication, which entails basically the same procedures as standard ethnography in social/cultural anthropology, but is specifically focused on communicative behavior. The fundamental controversy regarding the relationship between language and society has to do with whether the communicative patterning we find is a function or by-product of social relations as opposed to a less conditioned or less determined set of behaviors with a life of its own.
Terminology in sociolinguistics and definitions can be found in the Readings page.