This sociolinguistic study offers a theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of language change. Advanced statistical analysis methods are used in rigorously testing the supposed norm-enforcement effect of social networks within a rural community. In this analysis, social factors are considered to operate simultaneously and variably on the individual, and the individual is considered to respond variably. Revisions to the social network model are proposed, allowing the effects of various social factors operating on the process of resistance to language change to be evaluated simultaneously.