Abstract
This chapter describes and discusses the state-of-the-art in historical sociolinguistics, particularly when applied to Middle English. It suggests that all three domains of modern sociolinguistics, i.e. correlational and interactional sociolinguistics and the sociology of language, can be fruitfully employed in the study of Middle English, despite the fact that the Middle English period can indeed be very challenging with respect to language internal and external data. However, contrary to Labov’s claim that historical sociolinguistics is the art of making best use of bad data, it is shown that sociolinguistic studies in Middle English (and other periods) can also provide perspectives which ideally complement findings for Present-day English. In particular, the study of linguistic innovation, actuation, and diffusion across individual speakers’ lifetimes and across generations provides valuable new insights.
