Theoretical and methodological contributions to Historical Sociofunctionalism

Abstract

In this article, we present theoretical and methodological contributions to the operationalization of research in Historical Sociofunctionalism. To this end, we present the adopted perspective as a triadic framework that incorporates assumptions from variationist Sociolinguistics, North American Functionalism and Historical Linguistics. These contributions are organized into two domains. The first addresses the dilemma of the point of departure, whether based on a linguistic variable or a functional domain, and its impact on data collection, including corpus selection and the definition of temporal boundaries. The second domain concerns the type of research (historical or diachronic), which has consequences for the type of analysis, particularly those based on sociolinguistic principles (e.g. stratification, stylistic variation and diffusion) and functionalist principles (e.g. grammaticalization, iconicity and markedness). In this paper, we take a more argumentative than strictly analytical approach by surveying theoretical and methodological dilemmas and proposing solutions with the aim of adding one more chapter of Historical Sociofunctionalism. The triadic perspective (Sociolinguistics, Functionalism and Historical Linguistics) and the focus on dilemmas and directions provide theoretical and methodological advances to the sociofunctionalist approach, giving relevance to the proposal due to its potential scientific impact.