Two Models of Socially Significant Linguistic Variation

There are currently two prominent competing approaches to the study of the social significance of variation in language. One approach is the observation of the frequency of variants in actual speech and their correlation with social factors. The other approach, scalogram analysis, instead of recording the frequency of variants, systematically shows what the use of one variant implies for the use of another. It is argued here that the observation of frequency leads to generalizations not revealed by the use of scalogram analysis alone. Finally, some suggestions are made concerning the application of both models to problems of the teaching of reading and of socially standard English.