Social Class and Status

Abstract

The changing meanings and significance of social class and social status in sociology, and the use of these two significant sociological concepts in sociolinguistic analysis is explored. Classification of past and current approaches, to understandings of social class and social status, in terms of the work of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim, and the broad schools that developed around their work in sociological thought are also examined. Discussed are significant authors who have used the concepts of class and status in their analysis of language and society, such as Basil Bernstein, William Labov and Pierre Bourdieu. The complexity and changing nature of social class and social status and its application to sociolinguistic analysis, is focused on.