English Sociophonetics - 9780748636150

Sociophonetics is the multifaceted subfield of linguistics in which phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics interact. To understand the key questions addressed in sociophonetics, a firm grasp of articulatory and acoustic phonetics is required, together with an understanding of the workings of phonology and an appreciation of sociolinguistic variation, including how subtle phonetic differences can index a range of speaker identities. This book takes an integrated approach in examining issues of phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics in unison. The book begins with a consideration of how English varies, geographically and socially, before introducing the technical terminology and theoretical concepts of auditory and acoustic phonetics. An examination of phonology follows, investigating, in particular, what 'a phonology' is, and what kind of information is stored there. A crucial component of the book is an examination of how phonological variation can be represented in cognition, and how such va