Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model

Abstract

In sociolinguistics, approaches that use the variables of socioeconomic class and social network have often been thought to be irreconcilable. In this article, we explore the connection between these variables and suggest the outlines of a model that can integrate them in a coherent way. This depends on linking a consensus-based microlevel of network with a conflict-based macrolevel of social class. We suggest interpretations of certain sociolinguistic findings, citing detailed evidence from research in Northern Ireland and Philadelphia, which emphasize the need for acknowledging the importance of looseknit network ties in facilitating linguistic innovations. We then propose that the link between network and class can be made via the notion of weak network ties using the process-based model of the macrolevel suggested by Thomas Hejrup's theory of life-modes. (Sociolinguistics, sociology, quantitative social dialectology, anthropological linguistics)One of the most important contributions of Labov's quantitative paradigm has been to allow us to examine systematically and accountably the relationship between language variation and speaker variables such as sex, ethnicity, social network, and -most importantly perhaps -social class. Language variation in large and linguistically heterogeneous cities as well as in smaller communities has been revealed not as chaotic but as socially regular, and Labov and others have shown how investigating this socially patterned variation can illuminate mechanisms of linguistic change. In this article, we focus on the variables of social class and social network, both of which have appeared in some form in a large number sociolinguistic studies of variation and change. Our principal interest lies not in the complex sociological issues associated with class and network, some of which we discuss here, but in understanding the role of class and network in patterns of linguistic variation and mechanisms of linguistic change.

Anglicisms and calques in upper social class in pre-revolutionary Cuba (1930–1959): A sociolinguistic analysis

“…highest status social class, tend to represent loans from other high-prestige speech (Labov, 1994: 78). Milroy and Milroy (1992) have also attempted to study linguistic change by understanding the role of social class and network. According to their findings (1992:4), "the level of integration of any given group into the wider society is likely to be inversely related to the extent to which it maintains a distinctive vernacular", and all the shifts occurring "will be constrained by variations in political, economic, and social structures that are specific to these different localities".…”

Quantifiable and objective approach to organizational performance enhancement.

“…Work in the sociolinguistic field has also combined network analysis and linguistic style to understand linguistic variation with respect to social position (29), although with the social position provided from external sources. Eckert (11) describes the tradition in sociolinguistics of studying style variation in relation to "social categories of socioeconomic class, sex class, and age," at work in "ethnographic studies of more locally-defined populations" and "as a resource for the construction of social meaning."…”

Language exposure in Catalonia: An example of indoctrinating linguistic ideology

“…Indeed, it has often been observed that social networks are the locus of ethnic and/or ideological affiliations (Bortoni-Ricardo 1985;Edwards 1986;Milroy 1987;Milroy and Milroy 1992). The relationship between network membership and ideology is one that warrants further investigation in this community.…”