Sociolinguistics and the Narrative Turn

Book excerpt: Sociolinguistics and the Narrative Turn presents a fresh approach to sociolinguistics. Located within a qualitative paradigm, it proposes an alternative method for generating knowledge in the field. To start with, there is an argued critique of some of the guiding principles of traditional sociolinguistics which is driven by a trend of scholarship that draws on the meta-narrative of the researcher. In this traditional approach to sociolinguistics, the interpretation of the language phenomenon is not only decontextualised but also stripped of human experience. To illustrate his argument that a qualitative narrative approach to knowledge generation can offer different perspectives and can renew the theorisation of the relationship between language and society, the author has conducted a small-scale study consisting of seven participants.