This volume presents the long-anticipated results of several decades of inquiry into the social origins and social motivation of linguistic change.
- Written by one of the founders of modern sociolinguistics
- Features the first complete report on the Philadelphia project designed to establish the social location of the leaders of linguistic change
- Includes chapters on social class, neighborhood, ethnicity, gender, and social networks that delineate the leaders of linguistic change as women of the upper working class with a high density of interaction within their neighborhoods and a high proportion of weak ties outside of it
