Cover not available
Article published In:
Language and Communication of Asian Diaspora Communities in Europe
Edited by Zi Wang and Florian Coulmas
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 31:2] 2021
► pp. 279–297

The dynamics of contacts and multilingual practices in the Chinese community in Britain

Revisiting Social Network Analysis

| University College London
This article revisits the application of Social Network Analysis to the study of language maintenance and language shift in the Chinese community in Britain. An approach that focuses more on individual variations, including variable behaviours by the same speaker in different contexts, is proposed. The approach is illustrated with new data from Chinese-speaking families in London. The role of the social media in language maintenance and language shift, and in promoting multilingual practices is explored.
Keywords: Social Network Analysis, Chinese in Britain, language maintenance and language shift, social media
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Social network analysis in linguistic studies
  • The 1980s studies of language maintenance and language shift in the British Chinese community
  • The dynamics of social networks and multilingual practices: A new approach
  • A family ethnography: The Hu family
  • The role of social networking
  • Summary and conclusion: Towards a new dynamics of a multilingual community
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 7 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00068.li
References (28)
References
Cheshire, Jenny, Paul Kerswill, Sue Fox & Eivind Torgersen. 2011. Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2). 151–196. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2000. Language variation as social practice: The linguistic construction of identity in Belten High. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fagyal, Zsuzsanna, Aamarth Swarup, Anna María Escobar, Les Gasser & Kiran Lakkaraju. 2010. Centers and peripheries: Network roles in language change. Lingua 1201. 2061–2079. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gal, Susan. 1979. Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. San Francisco: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hulsen, Madeleine, Kees de Bot & Bert Weltens. 2002. Between two worlds: Social networks, language shift, and language processing in three generations of Dutch migrants in New Zealand. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1531. 27–52.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Laitinen, Mikko, Lundberg, Jonas, Levin, Magnus and Lakaw, Alexander. 2017. Revisiting weak ties: Using present-day social media data in variationist studies. In Exploring Future Paths for Historical Sociolinguistics. Edited by Tanja Säily, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin and Anita Auer. Amsterdam: Benjamins, Pp. 304–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lanza, Elizabeth & Bente Ailin Svendsen. 2007. Tell me who your friends are and I might be able to tell you what language(s) you speak: Social network analysis, multilingualism, and identity. International Journal of Bilingualism 11(3). 275–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lev-Ari, Shiri. 2016. How the size of our social network influences our semantic skills. Cognitive Science 40(8). 2050–2064. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Wei. 1992. A two-step sociolinguistic analysis of code-switching and language choice: The example of a bilingual Chinese community in Britain. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 2.1: 63–86 (with L. Milroy, S. C. Pong) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1994. Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family. Multilingual MattersGoogle Scholar
. 1995. Variations in patterns of language choice and code-switching by three groups of Chinese/English speakers in Newcastle upon Tyne. Multilingua 14.3 pp. 299–325Google Scholar
. 1997. Who maintains/relinquishes which language how and why? A response to Michael Clyne. Current Issues in Language & Society 4.2: 148–52 (single author) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2000. Social network analysis and language maintenance and language shift. Sociolinguistica 141: 142–147Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Kazuko. 2010. The role of social networks in the post-colonial multilingual island of Palau: Mechanisms of language maintenance and shift. Multilingua 29(2). 133–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milardo, Robert M. (ed.). 1988. Families and Social Networks. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley & Matthew Gordon. 2003. Sociolinguistics: Method and interpretation. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley and Li, Wei. 1995. A social network perspective on code-switching and language choice: The example of the Tyneside Chinese community. In One Speaker, Two Languages: Cross disciplinary perspectives on code-switching (eds) L. Milroy and P. Muysken. Cambridge: CUP pp. 136–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. 1987. Language and social networks, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
. 2002. Introduction: Mobility, contact and language change – Working with contemporary speech communities. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6(1). 3–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raschka, C. Li, Wei and Lee, S. 2002. Bilingual development and social networks of British-born Chinese children. IJSL. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ryan, Louise & Alessio D’Angelo. 2018. Changing times: Migrants’ social network analysis and the challenges of longitudinal research. Social Networks 531. 148–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sallabank, Julia. 2010. The role of social networks in endangered language maintenance and revitalization: The case of Guernesiais in the Channel Islands. Anthropological Linguistics 52(2). 184–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scott, John. 2012. Social network analysis, 3rd edn. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Sharma, Devyani 2017. Scalar effects of social networks on language variation. Language Variation and Change, 29(3), 393–418. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stoessel, Saskia. 2002. Investigating the role of social networks in language maintenance and shift. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1531. 93–132.Google Scholar
Tribur, Zoe. 2017. Social network structure and language change in Amdo Tibetan. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2451. 169–206.Google Scholar
Wissink, Marieke & Valentina Mazzucato. 2018. In transit: Changing social networks of sub-Saharan African migrants in Turkey and Greece. Social Networks 531. 30–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Wang, Xiaoyi & Xingyi Qiu
2023. Robotic Moment: The Influence Mechanism of Frequency of Socializing on Willingness to Interact with AI Robots. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.