Social Factors

When two people speak with one another, there is always more going on than just conveying a message. The language used by the participants is always influenced by a number of social factors which define the relationship between the participants.  Consider, for example, a professor making a simple request of a student to shut the classroom door because there is noise in the corridor. There are a number of ways that this request can be made:

1. Politely, in a moderate tone- "Could you shut the door please?"
2. In a confused manner while shaking his/her head - 
   "Why aren't you shutting the door?"
3. Shouting and Pointing, "SHUT THE DOOR!"

The most appropriate utterance for the situation would be a. 
The most inappropriate would be c.
This statement humiliates the student, and provides no effort by the professor 
to respect him/her.
Utterance b. is awkward because it implies that the teacher automatically assumes that the student should know better than to leave the door open when there is noise in the corridor. The inappropriateness is a social decision tied to the social factors which shape the relationship between speaker  (the professor),
and the listener (the student).

When choosing an appropriate utterance for the situation, there are factors that you must consider in order to effectively convey the message to the other participant.

1. Participants - how well do they know each other.
2. Social setting - formal or informal.
3. Who is talking - status relationship/social roles (student vs. professor)
4. Who is talking - status relationship/social roles (student vs. professor)
5. Who is talking - status relationship/social roles (student vs. professor)

Do you notice that there is a difference in the way you speak to your friends and the way you speak to your relatives, teachers, or others of professional status?

When telling your friend you like his/her shirt, you say:
      "Hey, cool shirt. I like that!"
When telling the director of the company our parents work for that you like his/her shirt, you say:
      "You look very nice today, I really like that shirt."

This is called choosing your variety or code. This kind of behaviour can also be seen in multilingual nations which possess a large number of dialects and languages. In many such societies, one may need to use one language in order to speak to one's best friend one to speak to the company director and a third to speak to family members.

It is not uncommon in our nation to see that languages other than English are spoken inside the home w/ friends and family. However when these bilingual or even trilingual families interact socially outside of their home, they will communicate in English. Even church services may use a variation of the language, one that you would hear inside the church or in school. 

A good book for more information on language and social issues is given below :

• Wardaugh, Ronald. 1998 An Introduction to Socio - linguistics Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.