**** Variation -- Labov

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Labov is best known for his empirical studies of variation in linguistic performances correlated to social variables. His contention is that language cannot be reduced to an ideal idiolect. All varieties, even idiolects, show variation. Much of this variation is motivated by factors independent of what can be determined synchronically, but when correlated to social factors such as class position, age grading, generation, register and others, patterns become apparent from which directions of change in the lect can be extrapolated. Two of the better known examples of this method are his findings concerning postvocalic /r/ loss as a function of formality, and the hypercorrection of the more careful speech acts of the (upwardly-aspiring) lower middle class.

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W. Labov (1970), "The Study of Language in its Social Context," in J.B.Pride and Janet Holmes, _Sociolinguistics, Selected Readings_, NYC: Penguin 1972, 180-202.