Why sociolinguistics ought not to have a future

Physicians ought not kill.

Sociolinguistics and Sociology: Current Directions, Future Partnerships

In this article, I discuss the past, present, and future of interdisciplinary scholarship between sociolinguists and sociologists. After detailing some of the broader history of collaboration between sociolinguists and sociologists, I examine two sub-areas of scholarship: the variationist tradition from sociolinguistics and the social stratification tradition from sociology. I contend that, giv...

Why it is not strongly irrational to have children.

I n his interesting paper Matti Häyry identifies a new disease ‘‘prereproductive stress syndrome’’ as well as a cure for the condition in the form of philosophically based counselling that the desire for having a child is irrational. Few now hold the belief that an engagement with philosophy has strong therapeutic effects (even fewer when they have met real life philosophers), but this in itsel...

Why Engineering Models Do Not Have

The Historical Sociolinguistics of Elite Accent Change: on Why Rp Is Not Disappearing

There is a perception common in the UK today, especially amongst journalists, that the RP accent is disappearing: for example, Public School pupils and younger members of the Royal Family are now often said to be speaking Cockney instead of RP. This claim is totally erroneous, but it is possible to point to a number of factors which can account for this perception. This paper attempts to elucid...