Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

SOCIAL NETWORKS IN A RURAL SETTING
The vernacular is rural and
conservative, such as the
Doric.
Direction
of change.
The standard is the
conservative variety,
accessible through the media,
education, and in (some) daily
interaction.
Speakers have access to the
vernacular in everyday
interaction, and from older
speakers.
Speakers have access to the
vernacular through dense,
multiplex network ties.
The (at least regional)
standard is one of the targets
for language change, and is
accessible through the media,
education, and in daily
interaction.
The vernacular is leading the
change, and is negotiated
through daily interaction,
such as in Belten High.
Figure 2.
Of course in Milroy’s Belfast data, the vernacular in certain urban areas is
mostly conservative. This is different from the situation in Belten High. In
Belfast, the urban vernacular stems from rural varieties brought in during
migration into the city. These people are likely to have a strong sense of
solidarity, perhaps due to their common rural Ulster roots, which has given
rise to ‘urban villages’, each socially cut off from the others. The speakers are
likely to signal this in their speech. The strong sense of ‘us and them’ is
preserved in such working-class communities, shown by language loyalty.
Milroy, in her later (1992) paper (see below), argues that people are
precipitated into modes of production by macro-level social, economic and
political factors, and that these modes of production then yield different
strengths of community-based ties, which in turn cause differences in
language use. In this view, the network becomes the ‘all-seeing eye’, exerting
a controlling and supervisory influence over its members’ behaviour. The
power of people to make choices in all areas of their lives, including language
use, is not given much attention.
Milroy does in fact point to the influence of attitudinal factors on
language maintenance.
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