Social network integration and language change in progress in a rural alpine village

Abstract

The quantification of communication network integration can provide information valuable to the study of language change in very small rural communities. The adaptation of urban and communication network methodology for rural alpine social structures establishes a framework for the study of variation leading to change based on individual usage for the dialect of Grossdorf in Vorarlberg, Austria's western-most province. This approach is particularly relevant when study of aggregate group behavior has failed to yield results due to small sample size or group internal inconsistency. (Field methods, language networks, variation and change)

Localized globalization: A multi‐local, multivariate investigation of quotative be like1

“…For our English dataset, residential criteria were paramount. Sociolinguists working in Britain tend to base their demographic categorization on the more neatly stratified class system and the longevity of class‐based settlement patterns (L. Milroy 1980; Milroy and Milroy 1985; Lippi‐Green 1989). In the 1990s, Derby and Newcastle constituted closely‐knit, socially clustered residential areas of manual workers’ communities and other, also areally delimited clusters of white‐collar families.…”

The Community of Practice: Theories and methodologies in language and gender research

“…Bortoni-Ricardo 1985, Milroy 1987, Lippi-Green 1989, Kerswill 1994. But again, the two frameworks can usefully be distinguished.…”

Language and gender

“…Milroy (1980) focused on people's social networks rather than their social class, in accounting for their speech patterns. Nichols, 1983Nichols, ,1984Edwards, 1986Edwards, , 1988Thomas, 1988;Lippi-Green, 1989). The strongest vernacular speakers... appeared rather consistently to be those whose local network ties were strongest' (Milroy, 1982: 143).…”