How does language change depending on different social situations?

Have you ever wondered how two people from completely different walks of life are able to communicate so easily? It's because subconsciously we adapt and change our language to suit the addressee. But how do we, without realising, change the way we speak?

Howard Giles came up with a theory called the Communication Accommodation theory which stated that "when people interact they adjust their speech, their vocal patterns and their gestures, to accommodate to others." For example, if someone of a lower class was interacting with someone of an upper class, the speaker would typically change their lexical choices to match the listener. This is in order to "gain approval" and "seek appreciation." One of the ways in which the speaker would do this in such a situation is a decrease in slang or taboo language. When speaking to someone of a similar class, a person of a lower class would be more likely to speak slang words and abbreviations rather than using fuller versions of words. This would typically be the opposite if the speaker was interacting with someone of a higher class to themselves. There are two accommodation processes in which people perform which are described by this theory. The first is convergence. This is the ways in which individuals' language changes to suit each other and decrease social differences. The second process is called divergence. This is where individuals increase their speech and gestures between themselves.

Another situation in which language changes is when a person, more specifically a teenager, is with family such as parents as opposed to if he/she was with friends. For example, typically when with parents, a person would tend to use more declaratives whereas when with friends, more interrogatives would be used. This is because when with friends, a person would seek information about a certain subject or gossip. However, when interacting with parents, a person is more likely to be answering questions instead of asking them. Not only this, but it is unusual to use taboo language when speaking to parents, whereas it is common when speaking to friends. Also, friends would have slang words in common which are picked up from various places such as on television shows. Parents may not have this in common with a teenager which means language like this is not used in those particular situations.

Lakoff did a lot of research into gendered specific language and found that in mixed-gender conversations, that it is common for a person to over-tell a story or information due to "social insecurity". This is opposed to same-gender conversations. One way in which this is done is by using tag questions. Lakoff describes tag questions as "a statement without the assumption that the statement is to be believed by the listener." Tag questions are frequent in mixed-gender conversations as a way of seeking approval from the listener. It could also be seen as a way in which to try and impress the other person.

Due to the research from people such as Lakoff and Howard Giles, we are able to understand how people sub-consciously interact with people from completely different backgrounds.

 

Jessica Saunders