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

SOCIAL NETWORKS IN A RURAL SETTING
calls ‘the heartland’ of the Doric, i.e. Buchan and Gordon. Until the last
generation, the dialect was conservative, but now that change is taking place
rather rapidly, a study of the social factors involved in language change can be
undertaken. The study has drawn on Social Network Theory, as well as
Pedersen’s (1991) adaptation of Højrup’s (1983b) theory of Life Modes. Age,
sex, social class, attitude to dialect and national pride are the other
independent variables (more on these later), and a stratified sample based on
age and sex has been used. The socio-political history of Scotland is surely an
influential factor in the dialect maintenance found in this area, and although
all the contributing factors cannot be analysed quantitatively, some of the
synchronic social scores, such as NATPRI (national pride), and ATTDIA
(attitude to the dialect) represent attitudes which have resulted from this
complex past. This study will examine the influence of the social factors
involved in allowing or facilitating language change, in an attempt to test
some of the main sociolinguistic theories in a rural setting.
6.3. Choice of Variables
Sociolinguistic research is centred on the notion of the linguistic variable, an
‘element which has a number of realisations, or variants, in speech, but a
constant meaning’ (McMahon 1994: 235). According to Hatch and Lazaraton,
‘a variable can be defined as an attribute of a person, a piece of text, or an
object which ‘varies’ from person to person, text to text, object to object, or
from time to time’ (1991: 51). When analysing the data, a score was assigned
to each occurrence of the variable: 1 for a dialect form, and 0 for a non-dialect
form. The resulting figures were then plotted against age, sex, and so on, to
see whether any significant patterns emerged. This kind of quantitative,
statistical approach is necessary because most speakers will use both variants,
but the frequency of use will vary according to non-linguistic factors
(McMahon 1994: 235).
After transcribing the recordings made during the pilot study, a number
of linguistic variables were identified as being clear features of the vernacular.
These were identified by comparing them with equivalent forms in Standard
Scots English (SSE). It is realised that SSE is not spoken even in the city of
Aberdeen as it is in, for example, Edinburgh. Aberdeen urban speech has
distinctly north-eastern phonetic and prosodic characteristics. The categories
of analysis are mainly phonological, as phonological items
147