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

J. MARSHALL
There are, however, some problems with the notion that factors at the macro
level produce different modes of production, which in turn produce network
structures, which in turn produce certain forms of language use. The model is
forced to take the speaker’s mental orientation and freedom of choice into
account, at least as far as Life Mode 2 goes. Notice that the flow chart splits
here, indicating that a certain life mode will not simply produce a certain level
of network integration, but that the individual has the power to choose what
level of integration s/he wishes. Surely this freedom of choice is also to be
acknowledged when it comes to using language? In fact, there is a discussion
in Milroy (1987), of two women in the same area, in the same age group, who
show great variation in language use and integration into social networks.
Paula and Hannah, for example, differ greatly in their level of integration into the
local networks. Paula has a large family of her own, visits frequently with
neighbours, and belongs to an informal bingo-playing group. Her neighbours are
also her work-mates. Hannah, on the other hand, has no children, or kin in the area
(she is the child of a Protestant/Catholic mixed marriage). She belongs to no local
informally constituted group of the kind we have described in chapter three as a
high-density cluster, and her work-mates are not from the Clonard. […] A glance at
table 5.4 will remind the reader that although the social status of the two women
was very similar, their patterns of language use were quite different. […] It will
also be recalled that Paula seemed to be much more closely integrated than Hannah,
in terms of kin, work and friendship ties, into the local community. In fact, Paula
scores two and Hannah scores zero on the network strength scale, reflecting the
difference in the character of their everyday social ties (Milroy 1987: 134, 152,
emphasis mine).
I will argue that the chain of dependency proposed in figure 5 is not
automatic. The Milroys (1992: 22) claim that macro socio-economic and
political factors precipitate people of the same social class into the same mode
of production, say, wage-earning worker mode. This worker life mode then
supposedly triggers dense, multiplex, area-bound networks.
[…] the different types of network structure that we distinguished in the previous
section can be seen to a considerable extent as springing from differences in the life-modes
of different individuals.
Just as different types of network structure emerge from the economic conditions
associated with life-modes 1 and 2, so a certain type of personal network structure is likely
to follow from life-mode 3.
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