Vernacular language loyalty and social network

Abstract

Several urban language studies over the past fifteen years have convinvigly established the links between a speaker's language and her ot his age, sex, and social class, yet very much more remains to be said about individual differences within these variable groups. Several linguists (e.g., Gumperz 1976; Rusell 1977; Bickerton 1975) havee made observations similar to Le Page (1968) that “the individual creates his system of verbal behaviour so as to resemble those common to the group or groups with he wishes from time to time to be identified”. This hypothesis is strikingly similar to Giles & Powesland's (1975) proposals for applying accommodation theory to explain linguistic code-switching.