The Backyard as a Dialect Boundary

This article shows that individuals in groups with tight-knit and dense social networks display considerable variation, despite the fact that they share a set of common social characteristics. Drawing on case studies from Tristan da Cunha English, spoken on a South Atlantic island, interindividual variation is traced in two members of the same family, who have identical social backgrounds and are in frequent face-to-face contact with each other. Results from a quantitative analysis of four selected variables and the evaluation of a perceptual dialectology study are interpreted in terms of their relevance for accommodation theory, social network theory, and mobility-related effects on language change. The study thus examines the role of individual variation and seeks to provide explanations for individuation (i.e., unexpected patterns of language usage on a micro level in single speakers), outlining its general relevance for sociolinguistic theory.