LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: SELECTED READINGS

Even the simplest of spoken statements may provide far more information about the speaker - his social standing, his immediate situation, his relationship with his audience - than he might ever suspect.sociolinguistics focuses on all the varied aspects of the social organization of speech. we share a linguistic repertoire with members of our social networks (and failure to fit in linguistically may have far-reaching consequences); we also alter our speech patterns according to the specific social situation.