ABSTRACT
From the use of “ain’t” to a new pronunciation of “o” in goes, or the adoption of “hoagie” for “sandwich,” linguistic features are shown to be disseminated or blocked depending on the characteristics of speakers’ networks. Here, we provide an overview of the application of social network theory to the field of variationist sociolinguistics, noting how the general findings hold both in the present and in the past, face-to-face and online, and in communities from Harlem to Hungary.
