Social networks and historical sociolinguistics

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This analysis explores morphosyntactic variation in a 250,000-word collection of the Middle English Paston Letters (1421-1503) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective. It includes three case studies focusing on two nominal and one verbal variable: the replacement of Old English pronouns with borrowed ones, the introduction and spread of relativizers, and the routinization of light verb constructions (take, make, give, have, do plus deverbal noun). The study integrates various theories and methods from sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, typology, and language change, with a primary emphasis on social network theory and the role of individuals in language structure formation and change. It addresses individual language use and the distinction between deliberate and unmonitored changes, analyzed through social network analysis. The study critiques traditional empirical social network analysis, suggesting it should be complemented by hermeneutic-biographical analyses of speakers' lives when examining historical data. Common theories of language change, such as grammaticalization and generational shifts, are evaluated from the perspectives of individual speakers and social groups within their speech community networks. This work is relevant to advanced students and researchers in English linguistics, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics.