The study of the social significance of variation has been of two kinds. Most work has focused on the patterning of use of variants according to abstract social categorizations such as age, gender and class. A smaller number of ethnographic studies have examined the use of variation to construct local meaning (such as Labov's study of the relation between nucleus raising of /ay/ on Martha's Vineyard, and stance towards the encroaching mainland-dominated economy). This talk focuses on two closely related issues that have remained unresolved in such studies: (1) the systematic connection between local meaning and global patterns and (2) the social organization of variation across local boundaries. These two issues are closely related, and when explored together provide a coherent account of social dynamics in the spread of linguistic change.

The talk will center on the use of six phonological variables by the white Anglo adolescent population of the Detroit suburbs. These variables include five vowels involved in the rotation known as the Northern Cities Chain Shift, and the raising and backing of the nucleus of (ay). I will present evidence from ethnographic and sociolinguistic work among adolescents in four high schools across the Detroit urban-suburban area, showing how the social meaning of these variables is constructed in the intersection between local social categories and practice, and engagement in the broader socio-geographic context.