William Labov (born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics.He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics.He is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania, and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. He semi-retired at the end of Spring 2014.Labov was awarded the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science by the Franklin Institute with the citation for establishing the cognitive basis of language variation and change through rigorous analysis of linguistic data, and for the study of non-standard dialects with significant social and cultural implications.