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Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Lesley Milroy  and
James Milroy
Lesley Milroy
Affiliation:
Departments of Speech (L.M.) and English Language (J.M.), University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Queen Victoria Road at St. Thomas' Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
James Milroy
Affiliation:
Departments of Speech (L.M.) and English Language (J.M.), University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Queen Victoria Road at St. Thomas' Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
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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 Højrup's theory of life-modes. (Sociolinguistics, sociology, quantitative social dialectology, anthropological linguistics)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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