This monograph takes up recent advances in social network methods in sociology, together with data on economic segregation, in order to build a quantitative analysis of the class and network effects implicated in vowel change in a Southern American city. Studies of sociolinguistic variation in urban spaces have uncovered durable patterns of linguistic difference, such as the maintenance of blue collar/white collar distinctions in the case of stable linguistic variables. But the underlying interactional origins of these patterns, and the interactional reasons for their durability, are not well understood, due in part to the near-absence of large-scale network investigation. This book undertakes a sociolinguistic network analysis of data from the Raleigh corpus, a set of conversational interviews collected form natives of Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2008-2017. Acoustic analysis of the corpus shows the rapid, ongoing retreat from the Southern Vowel Shift and increasing participation in national vowel changes. The social distribution of these trends is explored via standard social factors such as occupation as well as innovative network variables, including a measure of nestedness in the community network. The book aims to pursue new network-based questions about sociolinguistic variation that can be applied to other corpora, making this key reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics and historical linguistics as well as those interested in further understanding how existing quantitative network methods from sociological research might be applied to sociolinguistic data.

This timely book examines language on social media sites including Facebook and Twitter. Studies from leading language researchers, and experts on social media, explore how social media is having an impact on how we relate to each other, the communities we live in, and the way we present a sense of self in twenty-first century society.

Based on an investigation into the urban vernacular of Belfast.

The book presents an analysis of selected domains of morphosyntactic variation in a 250,000 word collection of the Middle English Paston Letters (1421-1503) from a historical sociolinguistic point of view. In the three case studies, two nominal and one verbal variable are described and discussed in detail: the replacement of Old English “i>h-th-wh-take, make, give, have, do plus deverbal noun). While the study aims at a balanced integration of theories and methods from a number of different approaches in sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, typology, and language change, its main focus is social network theory and the role of the linguistic individual in the formation and change of language structures. Questions of individual language use and of deliberate versus unmonitored changes in the (individual) system take center stage and are discussed in the light of social network analysis. Traditional empirical social network analysis is carefully revised. Despite its many merits in present-day sociolinguistics, it often needs to be supplemented by hermeneutic-biographical analyses of the individual speakers' lives when applied to historical data. With this background, common theories and models of language change, such as grammaticalization, paradigmatic pressure, typological alignment, and generational shifts, are illustrated and evaluated from the point of view of single speakers and social groups, and their particular embedding in the speech community through various network structures. The book is of interest to advanced students and researchers in English and general linguistics, Middle English, historical linguistics and language change, corpus linguistics, as well as sociolinguistics.

Social Media is fast becoming a key area of linguistic research. This highly accessible guidebook leads students through the process of undertaking research in order to explore the language that people use when they communicate on social media sites. This textbook provides: An introduction to the linguistic frameworks currently used to analyse language found in social media contexts An outline of the practical steps and ethical guidelines entailed when gathering linguistic data from social media sites and platforms A range of illustrative case studies, which cover different approaches, linguistic topics, digital platforms, and national contexts Each chapter begins with a clear summary of the topics covered and also suggests sources for further reading to supplement the initial discussion and case studies. Written with an international outlook, Researching Language and Social Media is an essential book for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Linguistics, Media Studies and Communication Studies.

The title seeks to show how people are embedded culturally, socially and linguistically in a certain peripheral geographical location, yet are also able to roam widely in their use and takeup of a variety of linguistic and cultural resources. Drawing on data examples obtained from ethnographic fieldwork trips in Mongolia, a country located geographically, politically and economically on the Asian periphery, this book presents an example of how peripheral contexts should be seen as crucial sites for understanding the current sociolinguistics of globalization. Dovchin brings together several themes of wide contemporary interest, including sociolinguistic diversity in the context of popular culture and media in a globalized world (with a particular focus on popular music), and transnational flows of linguistic and cultural resources, to argue that the role of English and other languages in the local language practices of young musicians in Mongolia should be understood as "linguascapes." This notion of linguascapes adds new levels of analysis to common approaches to sociolinguistics of globalization, offering researchers new complex perspectives of linguistic diversity in the increasingly globalized world.

Sociocultural research has long recognized the necessity of sustained interpersonal interaction for language development. However, less is known about the underlying relationships that promote language acquisition and their relevance for language classrooms. Presenting cutting-edge research on social networks and their applications in language teaching, this book explores the relationships that mediate language learning in and out of classrooms. Highlighting the complexity of language in multilingual contexts, chapters engage social network analysis to understand the role of instructional practices, socialization, motivation, language status, online communications technology, and language policies in the development of social resources for language learning. Discussing popular language teaching frameworks such as translanguaging, Social Networks in Language Learning and Language Teaching provides a nuanced account of the influences of social context on language learning, exploring classroom applications and pointing the way to a robust research agenda.

As a field in its own right, Minority Language Media studies is developing fast. The recent technological and social developments that have accelerated media convergence and opened new ways of access and exchange into spaces formerly controlled by media institutions, offer new opportunities, challenges and dangers to minority languages, and especially to their already established media institutions. This book includes debates on what convergence and participation actually mean, a series of case studies of specific social media developments in minority language, as well as comparative studies on how the cultural industries have engaged with the new possibilities brought about by media convergence. Finally, the book also offers a historical review of the development of Minority Language Media worldwide, and evidences the areas in which more extensive research is required.

Social Networking Approach to Japanese Language Teaching is a timely guide for Japanese language teachers and anyone interested in language pedagogy. The book outlines an innovative approach to language instruction which goes beyond the communicative approach and encourages a global view of language education and curriculum development through the use of social networking. It showcases diverse examples of how social networking can be harnessed and incorporated into everyday language classes to increase learners’ curiosity and engagement in real cultural and global interactions. While the focus is on Japanese language teaching, the concepts explored can be applied to other languages and teaching contexts. This book will benefit teachers of any language as well as linguists interested in language pedagogy.

This sociolinguistic study offers a new theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of language change within a community. Advanced statistical analysis methods are used in rigorously testing the supposed norm-enforcement effect of social networks. Revisions to the social network model are proposed, allowing the effects of various social factors operating simultaneously on the individual to be considered in evaluating the process of resistance to language change.