Read a conference report in our blog
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conference “Intra-Writer Variation in Historical Sociolinguistics” on 17-19 March 2021 will be full-online. There will be a combination of live Zoom meetings and pre-recorded presentations with virtual live discussions.
Important dates: 
- Registration by 15 March
- Opening of the internal area with Zoom links and further technical details: 1-2 weeks before the conference (registered participants will be informed via email)
- Conference: 17-19 March 2021
Intra-writer or stylistic variation can be considered as one of the new waves in historical sociolinguistics – see the previous HiSoN conference in Leiden 2018. In modern sociolinguistics, intra-speaker and stylistic variation have reached “the centre of sociolinguistic theorization and method” (Bell 2014: 297) and are now “a key ingredient of variationist sociolinguistic research” (Hernández-Campoy 2016: 30). The success of the so-called third-wave studies with their focus on the construction of identities through language has brought about influential concepts such as stylization, crossing and enregisterment. Resulting from the frequent lack of available information about individual historical writers and the randomness of textual transmission, historical sociolinguistics faces increased difficulties when focusing on individual language use and stylistic repertoires. This may be the reason why intra-writer variation has as yet not received much attention. This desideratum in historical sociolinguistics will be addressed at the HiSoN 2021 conference (-> Call for Papers).
Keynote Speakers:
- Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy (University of Murcia):
Intra-speaker variation and descending into the real world of epistolary interaction - Terttu Nevalainen (University of Helsinki):
The register potential of linguistic change: individual and group perspectives - José del Valle (The City University of New York):
Making voices, making publics: language history and linguistic memorialization
Organizing committee:
Markus Schiegg,
Judith Huber,
Katharina Gunkler-Frank,
Julian Mader,
Luzia Pätzel
The conference is hosted at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg by the junior research group Flexible Writers in Language History and the assistant professor of English Linguistics, in collaboration with the Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN).
Contact:
Email: conference-hison2021@fau.de
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