Having passed my philosophy exam last week I can focus on the most important pre-PhD examination, namely sociolinguistics and 'linguistic culture', a typically Polish approach to normative issues such as the development and current shape of Standard Polish.
Today I began to read Socjologia języka (Sociology of Language) by Polish linguist Kwiryna Handke (2008) and I can clearly see that the book is primarily about sociolinguistics. Ever since I attended classes in sociolinguistics I have considered it the study of how society influences language (with emphasis on language) and sociology of language the opposite approach, i.e. the study of how (a) language influences society. I can now see, however, that the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics by P.H. Matthews (2007) does not contain a separate entry on sociology of language, calling sociolinguistics "any study of language in relation to society ...". Does that mean that when we analyse prejudice against monolingual Spanish speakers in the USA we do sociolinguistics and not sociology of language? Or is the difference unimportant? My PhD dissertation studies language attitudes but I don't consider it as part of sociology of language since I focus on language issues and I do not even cite reference sources dealing with 'pure' sociology.
When I finish reading Handke's book I'll tell you if the sociolinguistics/sociology of language distinction, if any, has become clearer to me.
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