[abhawi666]

Chapter 6
Language and Social Interaction
Social Interaction
- The way in which language is used in conversations is an important part of sociolinguistics.
- Language can be used for manipulating relationships and achieving particular goals.**
- Code-switching is presumably a subconscious linguistic behavior, and it has the effect of making the conversation more intimate and/or confidential.
- It also enables speakers to signal two identities at once.
- The selection of one code over another seems to depend on the topic of discussion.
- Children learn the rules of conversation, along with the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
- Have rules about the way in which language should be used in social interaction.
- These rules may vary widely between one societies an another.
All societies
- Differences in communicative rules between cultures can often lead, in cross-cultural communication, to misunderstanding and even hostility.
- The study of these rules, and of cross-cultural differences in communicative norms generally, is often known as the ethnography of speaking.
Interestingly.
- The American sociolinguist Deborah Tannen has suggested that communication between men and women can be regarded as cross-cultural communication, which maybe subject for misunderstanding.
- She suggested that men and women often fail to understand one another properly, and that such misunderstandings can lead to friction and tension in relationships.
Directness / Indirectness
- One aspect of communication that may cause problems of miscommunication is directness and indirectness .
- The relationship between direct questions, for example, can be particularly threatening, and in many English- speaking societies some direct questions are hardly ever asked, such as: How much money do you earn? Are you married? How old are you? Etc.
- Indirectness then may be an important strategy if one is to spare themselves and others the embarrassment.