Part 1. Introduction 1. Sociolinguistics Today : Asia and the West Kingsley Bolton Part 2. Sociolinguistic Theory 2. Dialect Contact, Dialectology and Sociolinguistics Peter Trudgill 3. Meaning in Sociolinguistic Theory Ruqaiya Hasan 4. Sociolinguistic Aspects of Literacy R.B. Le Page Part 3. Language Variation, Culture and Society 5. Social Network and Prestige Arguments in Sociolinguistics James Milroy 6. New Perspectives in the Analysis of Sex Differentiation in Language Lesley Milroy 7. Diversity and Uniformity in Chinese Syntax: A Scalar Parametric Perspective Ping Chen 8. The Non-Beijing Dialect Component in Modern Standard Chinese Peter Davies 9. The Form and Meaning of Digraphia: The Case of Chinese Yat-Shing Cheung 10. ‘Talk is cheap...’ but ‘My word is my bond’: Beliefs About Talk Howard Giles, Nikolas Coupland and John Wiemann 11. Invoking the Spirits in Palawan: Ethnography and Pragmatics Charles Macdonald Part 4. Multilingualism 12. Some Major Features of the Sociolinguistic Situation in Europe and the European Charter Andrée Tabouret-Keller 13. Vernacular-Language Education Reconsidered Ralph W. Fasold 14. Reconceptualization, Translation and the Intellectualization of a Third World Language: The Case of Filipino Andrew Gonzalez 15. Contact Features of Singapore Colloquial English Anthea Fraser Gupta Part 5. Current Perspectives in Sociolinguistics 16 Sociolinguistics in Linguistics Ralph Fasold 17. The Theoretical Status of Linguistics James Milroy 18. Current and Future Directions in Sociolinguistics: A Social Psychological Contribution Howard Giles