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³ Natural communities by cluster º NEXT: open ³

³ analysis º <[LINK] - ³

cf. <[LINK]>

{<[LINK]> stuff on speech community by Taboret Keller and LePage,

Hymes, and others}

Attempts to define natural communities of any type are

necessarily relative, impossible to delimit beyond the clustering

of features into isogloss bundles on the basis of their

relatedness. Attempts to discern the natural boundaries of any

speech community are prone to many of the same problems that

geographical dialectologists have had in bounding dialect

regions. {<[LINK]> a future jump to the problems of isogloss

clustering and dialect boundaries} A method of _interpreting_

clusters must be utilized in order for them to take on meaning,

because clusters of one feature will often occupy different

spaces than clusters of another feature, crossing boundaries of

the individual as well as the communal. <[LINK]> At the moment

interpretation is introduced, the community ceases to be

"natural," but rather is "constructed" in part by the means of

interpretation.