Linguistic and Social Interaction in Two Communities1

Abstract

S OCIOLINGUISTICS has been described as the study of verbal behavior in terms of the social characteristics of speakers, their cultural background, and the ecological properties of the environment in which they interact (Hymes 1962; Ervin-Tripp 1964). In this paper we will explore some of the formal aspects of this relationship. We will examine the language usage of specific groups and attempt to relate it to linguistically distinct dialects and styles on the one hand and variables employed in the study of social interaction on the other. The raw material for our study is the distribution of linguistic forms in everyday speech. As is usual in descriptive analysis, these forms are first described in terms of their own internal patterning at the various strata (phonemic, morphemic, etc.) of linguistic structure (Lamb 1964; Gleason 1964). Ultimately, however, the results of this analysis will have to be related to social categories. This condition imposes some important restrictions on the way in which data are gathered. Since social interaction always takes place within particular groups, linguistic source data will have to be made commensurable with such groups. We therefore choose as our universe of analysis a speech community: any human aggregate characterized by regular and frequent interaction over a significant span of time and set off from other such aggregates by differences in the frequency of interaction. Within this socially defined universe forms are selected for study primarily in terms of who uses them and when, regardless of purely grammatical similarities and differences. If two grammatically distinct alternatives are employed within the same population, both will have to be included. On the other hand, in those cases where socially significant differences in behavior are signaled by grammatically minor lexical or phonemic correlates, the latter cannot be omitted from consideration.