William Labov

William Labov
Born (1927-12-04) December 4, 1927 (age 96)
Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)Industrial chemist (1949–60); professor of linguistics
(1964–2014)
Known forVariationist sociolinguistics
Spouses
  • Teresa Gnasso
​
(m. 1993)​
Children7 (including Alice Goffman, his adoptive daughter)
Academic background
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Columbia University (MA), PhD)
Doctoral advisorUriel Weinreich
Academic work
DisciplineLinguist
InstitutionsColumbia University
University of Pennsylvania
Notes

William Labov (/ləˈboʊv/ lə-BOHV;[1][2] born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics.[3][4] He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics.[5]

Labov is a professor emeritus in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. He retired in 2015 but continues to publish research.[6]

  1. ^ Gordon, Matthew J. (2006). "Interview with William Labov". Journal of English Linguistics. 34 (4): 332–51. doi:10.1177/0075424206294308. S2CID 144459634.
  2. ^ Tom Avril (October 22, 2012). "Penn linguist Labov wins Franklin Institute award". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference AAAS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ E.g., in the opening chapter of The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (ed. Chambers et al., Blackwell 2002), J.K. Chambers writes that "variationist sociolinguistics had its effective beginnings only in 1963, the year in which William Labov presented the first sociolinguistic research report"; the dedication page of the Handbook says that Labov's "ideas imbue every page".
  5. ^ Trask, R.L. (1997). A Student's Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London: Arnold. p. 124. ISBN 0-340-65266-7.
  6. ^ Chambers, Jack (January 14, 2017). "William Labov: An Appreciation". Annual Review of Linguistics. 3 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1146/annurev-linguistics-051216-040225. ISSN 2333-9683. S2CID 151373995. Retrieved March 27, 2023.