Introduction

Objective

The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the significance of social networks in contemporary language-variation research. A critique of the straightforward correlational use of social networks leads to the conclusion that, since they are not able to explain the total amount of variation within the speech community, other factors may be at work, either interacting with the network measures adopted, or intervening between networks and actual language use at a different level of abstraction. To achieve this, I propose a more interpretive understanding of the network concept. I will outline a more integrated language-variation theory including subtheories of stratification, social network and the individual speaker. Such a theory implies a revision of methods and techniques with regard to data collection and analysis: the analyst's task should no longer be separated from the participant observer's, since they constitute a unit which guarantees the adequate qualitative interpretation of quantitative results.

Hypothesis

The major hypothesis proposed in this chapter is that social networks, i.e. the web of ties within which most people's everyday lives are embedded, clearly reflect the main factor underlying language variation at an intermediate level of social analysis: the speaker's degree of isolation from, or integration with, the speech community. For this reason, intensive research on network properties and qualitative observation of individual behaviour within the speaker's personal network is the best way to capture this decisive factor constraining language variation.