Introduction 11On a second level there is at the same time a methodological organiza-
tion, which largely matches the divide between part one and part two on the
one hand, and part three on the other. Most of the contributions in the first
two sections implement advanced corpus-based techniques in order to deal
with the multiple dimensions of language variation and to disentangle con-
ceptual and social variation. In turn, the chapters in part three examine lec-
tal varieties by means of experimental designs, surveys and questionnaires,
showing how methods traditionally implemented in sociolinguistics and
psycholinguistics can likewise throw light on the interaction between lin-
guistic structure, cultural variation and conceptual content. Exceptions in-
clude the chapter in part two by De Vogelaer (who implements a question-
naire-based procedure) and the paper by Clark and Trousdale in part three
(who combine a data-gathering process in the form of a variationist soci-
olinguistic survey with a multivariate statistical analysis of the data) – but
these exceptions merely show that, regardless of the topic at hand, Cogni-
tive Sociolinguistics enlists the aid of all empirical methods available to
variationist researchers.
2.1. Part one. Lexical and lexical-semantic variation
This section comprises four chapters that in various manners examine lexi-
cal or lexical-semantic dimensions at the level of lectal variation. The first
two contributions examine variation in lectal structure in relation to con-
ceptual content and the last two papers apply novel methodological tech-
niques to the study of semantic variation.
In “Heterodox concept features and onomasiological heterogeneity in
dialects”, Dirk Geeraerts and Dirk Speelman ask the question whether in
dialectal variation not only geographical and social-stratificational factors
contribute to lexical variation (as assumed in most dialectological and soci-
olinguistic research), but also the features of the concept itself: will non-
traditional semasiological features such as conceptual salience and concep-
tual vagueness significantly influence the occurrence of onomasiological
heterogeneity? The authors present the design and results of a study de-
signed to test this hypothesis. Geeraerts and Speelman carried out a statis-
tical analysis of a large-scale database with dialectological data for the
Limburgish dialects of Dutch, operationalized the notions of vagueness,
salience and negative effect, and performed a multiple linear regression
analysis on the data. It is concluded that non-orthodox concept features