• DOI:10.1177/0075424206294308
• Corpus ID: 144459634

Interview with William Labov

@article{Gordon2006InterviewWW,
  title={Interview with William Labov},
  author={Matthew J. Gordon},
  journal={Journal of English Linguistics},
  year={2006},
  volume={34},
  pages={332 - 351}
}

• M. Gordon
• Published 1 December 2006
• Education
• Journal of English Linguistics

EJ: How did you become interested in linguistic studies? WL: I used to be a chemist and I worked in industry. I was attracted by an area where you could begin to develop something close to scientific principles in relation to language. My own view is that linguistics is not a science but that we're getting closer to it. Very few social sciences have solved the relationship between theory and practice. Most people feel that this is a one-way process. A group of theorists think up an idea and then someone else tries to put it into practice. In education, this can lead to theories that never work because the language they are based on is so far from the reality of the language that people actually use. An approach to linguistics is gaining momentum that takes a different approach, which begins with the language of everyday life, the language that children bring into the class-