variationist

English

Etymology

From variation ‎ -ist.

Noun

variationist (plural variationists)

1. (linguistics) A sociolinguist who studies systematic patterns of variation of linguistic forms.

Adjective

variationist (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Focused on systematic patterns of variation of linguistic forms.
   • 2013, Robert Bayley, “Variationist sociolinguistics”, in Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron, Ceil Lucas, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

     The central ideas of variationist sociolinguistics are that an understanding of language requires an understanding of variable as well as categorical processes, and that the variation witnessed at all levels of language is not random.