Theoretical and methodological questions: contributions of the axis 4

In this article, we return to the objectives and goals set under the axis "Theories and Methods for the study of Variation and Linguistic Change". We highlight their contributions relating the interface between Variationist Sociolinguistics and other theoretical models. We illustrate the issues around research developed in this axis, showing how the sociolinguistic variation, understood in terms of alternation between forms, can or has been analysed from the perspective of different theoretical models. We focus our attention on the interface with the Usage-Based Models and, more particularly, on the possibility of integration between the central theoretical assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics and the Usage-based Construction Grammar (UBCG). We claim that any dialogue between Sociolinguistics and theoretical models necessarily requires the incorporation of the social component of language into the theoretical body of a grammar model. Considering some assumptions of these models, we try to show that the sociolinguistic variation can be accommodated with the perspectives that start from the assumption of inseparability between system and language use. We highlight how the alternation of constructions has been accommodated in the theoretical body of UBCG.