We explore features of various styles of interaction and variation and change in these styles. Our project members focus on e.g. the discursive construction of social hierarchies and otherness/we-ness. The data comes from electronic corpora and other text collections, and we also edit new data. The project combines sociolinguistic and pragmatic perspectives and qualitative and quantitative methods, and employs findings of sociohistorical research and social theories to understand language as communication.