Reflection on Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is present in the life of anyone who is a member of a society. This is because at some point a person will come into the realization that there is some type coming from social factors that has an effect on their linguistics or those of another they know. This may be noticing that a child has adapted slang, that a colleague has developed a different delivery of tone after watching a television series or that they themselves have changed from saying I think to I feel. There are many subtle ways that these occurrences happen over the span of one’s life and many that are not so subtle depending on the strength of the influence. In my life there have been several instances where I have taken notice to how society has played a role in influencing my linguistics. Examples of this are the ways I interact with males compared to females, my interaction with elderly people compared to those my own age and children. There have been a few instances as well where I take a moment and wonder why I keep saying these new phrases or words in place of ones I had commonly used throughout my life.

When I consider the early stages of my life it is apparent that much of the language I used and how I used that language was influenced by my family. Within a family certain words and phrases or how they are said can have different meanings than they do outside the family unit (Hazen, 2022). As a child grows and learns to speak, a lot of what they are taught comes from inside their family (Hazen, 2022). This makes it no surprise that studies have found families can have one of the more dominant impacts in a person’s life regarding sociolinguistics (Hazen, 2022). Even without studies performed on the concept, it is logical that one’s family would have such an influence as they are often who we communicate with as we are developing our language skills and throughout our lives.

Although family had an influence over my language development another key factor that has always been very apparent is the influence of friends. The closer the friend the more influence they seem to have over the way we speak (Tannen, 2022). This can be so influential that a person will use dialect and language in one particular way when around one friend and then change how they use their dialect around another (Tannen, 2022). How close the relationship was with that friend may influence the words that were used but body language tended to change based on sex.

When speaking to a boy there would be little to no eye contact, although we were paying attention to the conversation, we would both appear to be preoccupied with other tasks if someone was to be observing us from a distance. When it came to interacting with girls, they acted quite the opposite. Girls gave the appearance of being more focused on social interaction and the conversation even if that interaction was with a boy and he did not. This is because girls tend to be more invested in their interactions and have more tendencies to make eye contact (Tannen, 2022). While boys will act preoccupied, fidget with the world around them and often seem like they are not listening (Tannen, 2022). This is not the case however, boys tend to listen, their interaction is just different (Tannen, 2022). While body language seemed to be much different between sexes there were other differences when interacting with boys or girls.

The content of the conversation was generally different when talking to a boy or a girl. Although that is understandable for some conversations the majority of the time boys talked about general stuff and things that they were curious about or interested in. Girls however seemed to always attempt to shift the focus to try to have conversations about their immediate family, friends or my friends. This seems to be quite common as when boys and girls were studied it was observed that boys talked about inquisitive, random topics (Tannen, 2022). Girls however had more of a focus on people, specifically their friends (Tannen, 2022). Using the information learned through the videos and materials while studying sociolinguistics has provided insight to understanding these scenarios from my past. The result of that makes the memories and situations seem less odd as well. While analyzing those previous interactions there were also additional scenarios come to light that I had not previously considered.

Social interactions with family and friends have had influence on both the language that I use and the way that I use it. As I have aged interactions in the workplace, school and in other social settings have played a role in how I use language to communicate. As an adult there are still instances that my linguistics and body language change based on who I am interacting with. When I was younger there was a definitive difference in linguistics and interaction based on the sex of the person or people that were interacted with. That has changed slightly in my adult life but has not changed completely. There are still instances where interacting with females results in less eye contact. Conversation content with a male is still on average quite different when speaking to a male than a female. Using the information learned studying sociolinguistics has given me the ability to identify these patterns in my life and shed light onto why they occur. This has been useful in improving my communication skills as well as understanding why certain people interact differently with me than I see them acting with others. This allows for better relationships and stronger communication with the ability to improve upon faults and habits that I wish to change. Taking time to reflect on previous interactions have assisted in ensuring that future interactions such as job interviews will be improved as I understand what habits I need to alter in order to be successful.

Sources

Hazen, K. (2002, January 1). The Family in Sociolinguistics. Academia.Eu. https://www.academia.edu/45646318/The_Family_in_Sociolinguistics

Tannen, D. (2022). To Be. [Video Lecture].

Cover Photo

Barts, Nicola. “Man With a Beard Talking and Gesturing · Free Stock Photo.” Pexels, 17 May 2021, www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-a-beard-talking-and-gesturing-7927569.