This paper surveys and illustrates ten years of research done on sociophonological variation in Viennese German from a methodological point of view. It shows how variants of the same word form are collected and analyzed and how two types of rules are differentiated: (1) phonostylistic (optional) phonological rules of the fast/casual and formal hyperarticulate speech, both of Standard Austrian German and Viennese German Dialect; and (2) bidirectional input switch rules between these two strata. Psycholinguistic lab experiments are summarized, which vouch for the psychological reality of sociolinguistic concepts used. A theory of sociopsychological speech situations is described as well as the application of quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistic methods used. A major illustration of our approach is taken from the sociolinguistic study of defendants at court. The conclusion summarizes major claims. (Courtroom discourse, hermeneutics, phonological theory, phonological variation, psycholinguistic experiments, qualitative and quantitative methods, sociophonology, speech situations, style repertoires, switching, text linguistics, therapeutic discourse; Standard Austrian German, Viennese German.)

A central feature of the oral discourse of the Kuna Indians of Panama is the line. The nature of lines, verses, and other poetic and rhetorical units has recently emerged as a significant topic within the study of native American languages and discourse generally. Investigation of the structuring of Kuna lines requires attention to the intersection and interplay of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and poetic structures, patterns, and processes. (Discourse, line and verse patterning, ethnopoetics; Panama, Kuna.)

Studies of the social organization of adolescent groups may not have always taken into account sufficiently the dual reality of the groups in which much of the youths' activities occur. Peer terminology is useful in locating and describing the associational patterns and activities of the youth, but only if the range of possible terms is considerably broadened. It was found in a study of a Harlem street gang that such language may appear ambiguous, but when studied systematically in the interaction between interviewer and members, the misunderstandings become transparent. Peer terminological practices can be used to provide further knowledge of the reality of the social organization of adolescent primary groups. (Peer terminology, primary groups, misunderstanding, interviewing, juvenile delinquency, urban black adolescent language; verbal tags.)

In the New York area, there are three local terms for “dragon fly”: darning needle, dining needle, and diamond needle. We analyze the distribution of these terms and their relation to the national norm, dragon fly. (Language variation, dialectology, language change.)

Interest in Hugo Schuchardt (1842–1927) has recently grown and broadened. A number of recent studies and collections of his work are reviewed. The conventional historiographical portrait of him shows an isolated, marginal dilettante intransigently opposed to the neogrammarian hypothesis of regular sound change. A closer look shows a large body of important work oriented around themes of language mixture, lexicalism, and the importance of the social matrix of language. His sustained work on these topics as they weave in and out of a selected group of language families, his claims to first or early priority in the wave theory, the continuum hypothesis, the creole origin of Black English, a variety of ethnoscience research, and other aspects of sociolinguistics make him a commanding figure in the history of modern linguistics. A reappraisal is called for; resources for it are noted.