Welsh Journals

4. A STUDY OF LANGUAGE CONTACT AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN YNYS MON Delyth Morris INTRODUCTION In this paper, my objective is to consider language contact by seeking to establish how, structurally, language groups are social groups. This will be done by drawing on network analysis as a method which allows the investigator to demonstrate the extent of interaction between members of the respective language groups, as well as determining the context of any resulting interaction. This is not to imply that a social group is equal to the sum of its constituent parts, but rather to suggest that the patterns that will emerge are structured by considerations beyond the confines of the individual participants. SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS The concept of 'social network' as a tool for analysis has been developed greatly over the past 20 years by a number of researchers, although its roots go back much further to classical German sociology, where Toennies, Weber and Simmel used the term metaphorically (Scott, 1988). It was not until the 1930s, however, that the metaphor was transformed into an analytical tool within social psychology by Moreno (1953), who developed 'sociometrics' to enable him to study the structures of groups through their friendship patterns and informal interactions. Later on, Barnes (1954) used social network analysis in his study of a Norwegian fishing village, and Bott (1957) to study conjugal roles in urban families. Other researchers who have used the analysis extensively are Mitchell (1969) and Boissevain (1974), in their studies of societies in Africa. More recently, the network concept has