The Strenght of Weak Ties. How Linguistic Change Happens in Social Networks

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 2.3 University of Cologne language: English abstract: The following pages will take a deeper look on the Social Network Theory as part of the sociolinguistics. It will further be discussed to what extend social networks are bound to concepts of social class. Since the Social Network Theory was primarily build to function as tool within the sociolinguistics a short summary of two studies will be discussed. Furthermore oppositions and similarities of Milroy´s and Labov´s theories according to main factors of linguistic change shall be shown. A historical perspective of weak ties will be given at the example of late medieval and early modern London before the last chapter will not only try to summarize the most important results but also hint at the importance of an integrated model of the network theory and social factors.