Language Variation in a Blue Ridge Community: Social Network, Identity, and the Use of Appalachian Dialect Features - Softcover

Burkette, Allison

 
9783639133929: Language Variation in a Blue Ridge Community: Social Network, Identity, and the Use of Appalachian Dialect Features
Softcover
ISBN 10: 3639133927 ISBN 13: 9783639133929
Publisher: VDM Verlag, 2009

Synopsis

"Language Variation in a Small Blue Ridge Community" examines the application of Social Network Theory (SNT) to a sociolinguistic study conducted in a small, rural community located in the Appalachian dialect region. This study focuses on data from thirteen individuals, all members of the same close-knit social network. The informants are residents of a small town ('Carrollton'), located in the mountains of western North Carolina, an area experiencing social and economic change as the result of tourism and the construction of a golf resort. Grammatical and phonological data are presented and analyzed in terms of the traditional sociolinguistic variables of age and education level as well as in terms of the social network members' network scores. Though SNT carries with it expectations regarding the uniformity of network members' speech and the maintenance of marked linguistic features, the variable of network score could not be linked statistically to the use of many Carrollton linguistic features. Given this unexpected result, this work provides an explanation of the intra-network variation through the use of an 'identity' variable.

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About the Author

Allison Burkette is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Mississippi.

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Publisher
VDM Verlag
Publication date
2009
Language
English
ISBN 10 
3639133927
ISBN 13 
9783639133929
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
196