社会语言学是研究语言与社会多方面关系的学科，它从社会科学的不同角度，诸如社会学、人类学、民族学、心理学、地理学和历史学等去考察语言。自20世纪60年代发端以来，社会语言学已经逐渐发展成为语言学研究中的一门重要学科，引发众多学者的关注和探究。
　　“牛津社会语言学丛书”由国际社会语言学研究的两位领军人物——英国卡迪夫大学语言与交际研究中心的教授Nicolas Coupland和Adam Jaworski（现在中国香港大学英语学院任教）——担任主编。丛书自2004年由牛津大学出版社陆续出版以来，推出了一系列社会语言学研究的专著，可以说是汇集了这一学科研究的新成果，代表了当今国际社会语言学研究的高水平。
　　《牛津社会语言学丛书》从中精选出九种，引进出版。所选的这些专著内容广泛，又较贴近我国学者研究的需求，涵盖了当今社会语言学的许多重要课题，如语言变体与语言变化、语言权力与文化认同、语言多元化与语言边缘化、语言与族裔、语言与立场（界位）、语言与新媒体、语用学与礼貌、语言与法律以及社会语言学视角下的话语研究等等。其中既有理论研究，又有方法创新；既有框架分析建构，又有实地考察报告；既体现本学科的前沿和纵深，又展现跨学科的交叉和互补。
　　相信《牛津社会语言学丛书》的引进出版能为从事社会语言学研究的读者带来新的启示，进一步推动我国语言学研究的发展。

Phonetic/Phonological Values of Symbols Appearing in the Text xxi

1 The Variation Puzzle，
1 Lin uistic Variation without Social Weighting
2 High Levels of Socially Neutral Linguistic Variationin Three SocioeconomYically Undifferentiated Minority-Language Enclaves
3 Exposure to Standard-Language or Mainstream Normsand Deviations from Those NOfms in English and in Gaelic
3．1 English and Its Dialect Forms
3．2 Vernacular Gaelic and Formal Gaelic
3．3 Local Speech Features in the East Sutherland Fisherfolk Context
4 Initial Encounters with Variability
4．1 Encountering the Language
4．2 Encountefing Intra Community Variation
4．3 Age-Related Variation
4．3．1 Establishing an Age-and-ProficiencyContinuum
5 Inter-Speaker and Intra-SpeakerVariation in the Gaelic-Speaking Communities
5．1 Examples of Inter-and Intra-Speaker Differences in the Use ofTwo Variables
5．2 The Evidence of Dialect Geography
5．3 The Possible Effect of Gender
5．4 The Possible Effect of Style
5．5 The Possible Effect of Kinship or of Household Membership
5．6 The Prevalence of ldiosyncratic， Socially Neutral Variation
6 Coming to Grips with the Variation Puzzle
6．1 The Inadequacy of Obsolescence as an Explanation for ldiosyncratic Variation
7 Researcher Responses to Seemingly ldiosyncratic Variation among Speakers
7．1 Residual Prescriptivism
7．2 Data Control via Source Selection
7．3 Search for an Assumed Uniformity
7．4 Concentration on the Group Ratherthan the Individual
7．5 Expectation of Linguistic Focusing within Small， Tight-Knit， Highly Interactive Communities
7．6 Expectation of Linguistic Accommodation to Other Speakers
7．7 Expectation of Linkage between Variationand Social Differentiation
7．8 Researcher Responses： Summary
8 Variation within and across．Village Boundaries
8．1 Local Responses toVariation： Inter-Village Variation
8．2 Local Responses toVariation：Intra-Village Variation
8．3 Fisherfolk Populations Unitedand Divided by Gaelic
9 Plan of the Remainder of the Book
2 The East Sutherland Fishing Communities
1 Introduction： Fishing as a Subsistence Mode
2 Creation of the East Sutherland Fishing Communities：The \"lmprovement\" Era
2．1 The Highland Clearancesin the East Sutherland Context
3 Fishing as a Way of Life in East Sutherland
3．1 The Local Fishery： Line Fishing
3．2 The National Fishery： Herring Fishing
3 Dimensions of Linguistic Variation in a Socioeconomically Homogeneous Population
4 A General Introduction to Speakers and'Variables
5 A Close Look at Some Embo Variablesand Their Use
6 Kin Groups， Peer Groups， and Variation
7 Speech Norms，Accommodation， and Speaking Well in Gaelic Embo
8 Socially Neutral Linguistic Variation： Where， Why，What for， and How?
9 Conclusion
Notes
References
Index