Rethinking the Speech Community: Theoretical Debates and Alternative Models in Sociolinguistics

Abstract

This paper investigates the sociolinguistic concept of 'speech community' and highlights its controversial nature with reference to various scholarly interests in the field. It reviews the history of the term and the seminal sociolinguists' takes on it. It provides an overview of key perspectives and highlights the debates surrounding the theoretical underpinnings of the concept and its various applications as a unit of analysis in the field. It then discusses further controversies in relation to the Labovian model of speech communities, primarily those of Hudson and Bucholtz, both of whom reject the speech community model and offer their own alternatives: social networks and communities of practice. The paper concludes that speech communities remain theoretical constructs that are not as real as clearly defined smaller communities such as Hudson's social networks or Bucholtz's communities of practice. Speech communities remain abstract conceptions in the sociolinguist's mind, even if the research undertaken is empirical.