Mark Richard Lauersdorf

My interests in historical sociolinguistics encompass both macro- and micro- aspects of the field. I get particularly excited about language contact situations that exhibit high numbers of language varieties in contact; no standard language or prestige variety; a multitude of geographical and political borders; and rapidly changing socio-cultural, socio-political, socio-economic contexts. In these contexts I undertake data-driven, corpus-based investigations that attempt to identify language patterning in the contact varieties and determine the type, degree, distribution, etc. of any identified patterns. I'm also interested in the development of tools and methods for historical sociolinguistics, including corpus annotation for historical sociolinguistic research, and the use of statistical and visualization tools for analysis, interpretation, and presentation of historical sociolinguistic data. Together with Joe Salmons, Fernando Tejedo-Herrero, and Don Tuten, we have created a new professional organization, the North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics (NARNiHS) to promote the field and encourage its growth among new generations of linguists. Look for courses and events in the Historical Sociolinguistics "cluster" at the 2017 Linguistics Institute - including the inaugural conference of NARNiHS, 21-22-23 July 2017.