James and Lesley Milroy - Social Variation (Networks)

Question 1

Where and when did this study take place?

Answer 1

Belfast, 1977

Question 2

What were the three communities they looked at?

Answer 2

Ballymacaret
The Hammer
Clonard

Question 3

What were the social features of Ballymacaret?

Answer 3

Protestant community
High male employment (mainly in the shipyards)
Working class
(Most prestigious)

Question 4

What were the social features of The Hammer?

Answer 4

Protestant community
Low male employment
Working class

Question 5

What were the social features of Clonard?

Answer 5

Catholic community
High male unemployment
Working class
(Least prestigious)

Question 6

How did the Milroys score the different communities on their network?

Answer 6

Using a Network Strength Score

Question 7

What factors was the Network Strength Score affected by?

Answer 7

• living in the same area
• having family live in the same area
• working in the same place as others living in the same area
• meeting up with colleges outside of work

Question 8

What were the scores of the NSS like?

Answer 8

Each person was rated on a scale of 1-5 depending on the different factors that affected the NSS. This reflected the person’s knowledge of others in their community.

Question 9

What were the two different variables that the Milroys looked at?

Answer 9

Use of |ð| in words like “mother” (th sound)

Use of |a| in words like “hat”

Question 10

What was the vernacular form of |ð| ?

Answer 10

Removing the |th| from the middle of words

Question 11

What were the patterns in data for the variable of |ð| ?

Answer 11

• All 3 communities showed men (18-25 on scale) to be using the vernacular form
• Women used vernacular form much less frequently. (Particularly in Ballymacaret)

Question 12

What were the patterns in data for the variable of |a| ?

Answer 12

• Ballymacaret followed a similar pattern to the |ð| variable.
• In Hammer the gender difference was insignificant
• In Clonard the women used the vernacular form much more than men

Question 13

What was the reason behind the women in Clonard using the vernacular |a| more than men?

Answer 13

Because most men were unemployed and the women went to go out, socialise and work with each other, therefore gaining a higher network strength score than men.

Question 14

Closed networks =

Answer 14

High density

Question 15

Open networks =

Answer 15

Low density

Question 16

What do high density networks enforce?

Answer 16

Linguistic Norms