Practice One

Topic: What Sociolinguists Do

Instruction:
Select a talk. Identify the difference that you can see based on social factors, social dimensions,
and explanation. Work this out in your group.

Answer the following questions as a guide to your work.

Social factors
• Identify the participants of the talk, the setting: time and place.
• Find what they are talking about?
• Find why they are talking?
Social Dimensions
• Identify the participants’ degree of social relationship
• Identify the participants’ status of social relationship
• Identify the degree of formality of the talk
• Identify the degree of referential and affective functions of the talk
Explanations
• Identify the linguistic variations used
• Identify the different social and non-linguistic factors used

An example of table format:

A Talk between Mr. X and Mrs. X

Sociolinguitic Point of View on a Talk between Mr. X and Mrs. X

Social factors Social dimensions Explanations

Participants
Time
Place
Topic
Purpose/function
Social distance scale
Social status scale
Formality scale
Functional scale
Linguistic variation
Social or non-linguistic
variation