Willem B. Hollmann Lancaster University Cognitive sociolinguistics: from inspiration to innovation Cognitive sociolinguistics may be described as the study of linguistic variation from a cognitive perspective. Over the past decade and a half it has developed into a vibrant research area, initially driven by cognitive linguists (some early examples being Geeraerts 2003, Gries 2003, Kristiansen 2003, Hollmann and Siewierska 2006, 2007, Grondelaers et al. 2007, 2008, Croft 2009), but more recently also by some sociolinguists (e.g. Clark 2007, Clark and Watson 2011, Nycz 2013, Soukup 2013, Moreno-Fernández 2017). The aim of this talk is twofold. First, following a brief discussion of what cognitive sociolinguistics is, I will sketch how it has developed, consider what its main descriptive, methodological and theoretical contributions thus far have been, and speculate in which direction(s) it may be heading in future. Second, I intend to show from a more practical point of view how we may continue to push the cutting edge in this area. I will argue that one potentially very productive way to make novel contributions is to start from careful consideration of the very bases upon which cognitive sociolinguistics has been established, i.e. cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics, and in fact beyond that, the domains of inquiry from which those approaches to language have developed: psychology, sociology, anthropology and linguistics itself. The basic idea here is that these areas represent large amounts of knowledge much of which for a variety of reasons has not been tapped into yet, but which may at least potentially inform and improve our understanding of linguistic variation. I will illustrate this idea mainly through discussion of some ongoing research on the possible relevance to language of the social psychological notion of the ‘self-serving bias’, which may be defined as “any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem” (Forsyth 2008:429). Recorded&Edited: Betty Stojnić & Benedikt Perak