Chapter 5: Speech Communities

Speech community

Population that shares a variety of some language

Social Networks (Milroys)

Diagram of the many relationships within a speech community

Dense network

Everyone you know in your social group also knows everyone you know in your social group (WC)

Loose network

The people you know in your social group do not know each other (UC)

Multiplex network

People in a speech community are related or have family members in their social group, and have lived in the same neighborhood for generations (WC)

Simplex network

The people you know in your speech community do not know the people you grew up with/your family (UC)

Communities of practice

People involved in a common practice/shared activity who share linguistic characteristics

Speech as accommodation behavior (Milroy)

We alter our speech to emphasize our social bonds to people we speak to or lack thereof to people we don’t