` While both his correlations and causal explanations are
often convincing, he, like anyone else building a model, has to
make assumptions or idealizations. `
The causal order in Labov's work is left implicit. He
assumes that class status precedes language performance. That
is, status is the independent variable upon which depends
language variation. Marxist scholars have criticized Labov's
privileging of social positions along a continuum in a society at
a given time over relations among, particularly tensions among,
those positions.{<[LINK]> Gregory Guy's article in Cambridge Survey}
In Labov's model, linguistic gravity pulls upward along a class
continuum. Especially in pidgin and creole situations, the norms
are assigned their definitions and values by those occupying the
positions of power, introducing an element of circularity to
Labov's causal order.
<[LINK]>