2 Summary of the chapter

Lynn Clark and Graeme Trousdale's chapter "Using participant observation and social network analysis" is concerned with analyzing linguistic “variation that continues to exist within larger social categories” (Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2: 36) by combining the methods of participant observation and social network analysis. In so called "first wave" studies, linguistic variation has commonly been correlated with 'global' social categories such as social class, age and sex. However, such an approach cannot provide insight into the patterning of linguistic variation in a local context. Therefore, in the 1980s James and Lesley Milroy popularized the combined use of participant observation and social network analysis in order to study linguistic variation between individuals that are not discernible in terms of such larger social categories. In their chapter, Clark and Trousdale take up this approach and provide a detailed description of an exemplary case-study conducted by Lynn Clark. The chapter is divided into two thematically aligned main parts. The first part features a qualitative description of the case study, while the second part illustrates the results of the quantitative analysis. Furthermore, the first part is subdivided into two sub-sections, with the first explaining the concept of participant observation and the second elucidating social network analysis. This is meant to “provide a [general] 'how-to' guide for researchers interested in using participant observation [and social network analysis] as a technique for the collection of linguistic data” (Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2: 50). The authors conclude their chapter with a brief discussion of the limitations and caveats with such an approach.

The most important information concerning Clark and Trousdale's case study will be recapitulated in the following. The data for their study came from a 360.000 word corpus, consisting of 38 hours of recorded conversations that Clark and Trousdale led with 54 members of the West Fife High Pipe Band out of east-central Scotland. Their focus was on “the incoming innovation [of] 'th-fronting'” (Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2: 45) which is characterized by “the replacement of the dental fricatives [θ, ð] with the labiodentals [f] and [v] respectively” (Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2: 45). In order to collect data, Lynn Clark, who herself had played in a pipe-band, decided to implement the method of “participant observation” rather than “complete participation” (the two methods are distinguished by ethnographers). That way she had the “freedom to move between the various different sub-groups [of the band]” (Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2: 38) and was not bound to a specific group which would have drastically restricted the access to linguistic data. However, as the research focused on phenomena based on the social structure of a group, it was crucial that Clark became part of the band's social network in order to observe natural speech. Therefore, she regularly attended band-practice - even during competition season when practice is loud and intensive thus leaving little room for social interaction - in order to accustom the band members to her presence. Further, she would participate in fund-raising activities (i.e. bag-packing at a local supermarket) in order to mingle with the band members and to work for her acceptance as the newest addition to the group. In time, she could share stories and jokes and was perceived rather as an active participant than a passive observer.

Next, Clark implemented a method called the ‘envelope game’ in order to identify the various sub-groups within the band. The members were asked to assign each informant into friendship groups and then label the respective groups according to whatever they felt was characteristic of them. Based on the results, it was possible to define the cliques within the band, thus gaining an insight into the band’s social structure.

The last step was to correlate linguistic variation with the results of the social network analysis. Clark and Trousdale found out that within the community of the West Fife High Pipe Band th-fronting was largely socially motivated as it was primarily the ‘youthful and/or rough’ friendship-groups labeled as ‘tiny wee pipers’, ‘the new folk’, ‘fun/up for a laugh, not very serious’, ‘novice tenor section ‘Wild’!!’ and ‘they act hard all the time’ that most strongly favored the labio-dental variant (cf. Clark and Trousdale, Chapter 2). The groups including the more geeky, more mature and senior band-members all exhibited a strong disfavor for the incoming innovation, thus substantiating the assumption that th-fronting carries a shared social meaning of toughness and youthfulness.

Clark and Trousdale conclude their chapter with a section entitled “Limitations and conclusions” in which they list the disadvantageous associated with each of the issues they previously address (i.e. participant observation, inevitable abstraction over groups of speakers or linguistic items in quantitative sociolinguistics, and interpretation of the social meaning of language variation). The disadvantageous of participant observation are relatively obvious: it is extremely time-consuming and requires much energy and dedication on the researcher’s part. Further, the amount of data obtained usually exceeds practical feasibility.

Abstraction over groups of speakers in quantitative sociolinguistics is an inevitable necessity. This also holds true for Clark and Trousdale’s study, where despite the very local level of abstraction, a certain amount of inter-speaker variation is impossible to be accounted for.  

Finally, the authors express some doubts as to what extent the assumption that a shared core social meaning of variation exists across a large number of speakers is actually true. This question deserves serious consideration as the presumption that certain variants and variables carry a shared social meaning serves as the basis for the entire approach presented in their chapter.

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