Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the sociology of language focuses on language's effect on the society. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically closely related to linguistic anthropology and the distinction between the two fields has even been questioned recently.

It is generally assumed that non-standard language is low-prestige language. However, in certain groups, such as traditional working-class neighborhoods, standard language may be considered undesirable in many contexts. This is because the working class dialect is generally considered a powerful in-group marker, and especially for non-mobile individuals, the use of non-standard varieties (even exaggeratedly so) expresses neighborhood pride and group and class solidarity. There will thus be a considerable difference in use of non-standard varieties when going to the pub or having a neighborhood barbecue (high), and going to the bank (lower) for the same individual.

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• Sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics, Applications of sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics, Traditional sociolinguistic interview
• Sociolinguistics, Fundamental concepts in sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics, Speech community
• Sociolinguistics, High prestige and low prestige varieties
• Sociolinguistics, Social network
• Sociolinguistics, Differences according to class
• Sociolinguistics, Class aspiration
• Sociolinguistics, Social language codes

• WikipediaSociolinguistics: an interview with William Labov