 william labov ( ; born december 4, 1927) is an american linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics.e.g., in the opening chapter of the handbook of language variation and change (ed. chambers et al., blackwell 2002), j.k. chambers writes that "variationist sociolinguistics had its effective beginnings only in 1963, the year in which william labov presented the first sociolinguistic research report"; the dedication page of the handbook says that labov's "ideas imbue every page". he has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics. he is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the university of pennsylvania, and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. he semi-retired at the end of spring 2014. ==biography== born in rutherford, new jersey, he studied at harvard (1948) and worked as an industrial chemist (1949â61) before turning to linguistics. for his ma thesis (1963) he completed a study of change in the dialect of martha's vineyard, which was presented before the linguistic society of america. labov took his phd (1964) at columbia university studying under uriel weinreich. he taught at columbia (1964â70) before becoming a professor of linguistics at the university of pennsylvania (1971), and then became director of the university's linguistics laboratory (1977). he has been married to fellow sociolinguist gillian sankoff since 1993. prior to his marria
1927_births American_linguists Columbia_University_alumni Dialectologists Fellows_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences Fellows_of_the_American_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Science Guggenheim_Fellows Harvard_University_alumni Jewish_American_scientists Living_people Members_of_the_United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences People_from_Rutherford,_New_Jersey Sociolinguists University_of_Pennsylvania_faculty