Formulations of the Problems

relations between the settings, the participants, the topic, the functions of the interaction, the form, and the values held by the participants about each of these. Sociolinguistics has also been defined as the study of language in its social context. It analyses speech in order to show that linguistic variation does not occur randomly but is structured: the aim of sociolinguistics is to expose the orderly heterogeneity of the normal speech community Coates, 1993: 4. In addition, the sociolinguists ’ aim is to move towards a theory which provides a motivated account of the way language is used in a community, and of the choices people make when they use language Holmes, 1992: 16. For example, when people observe how varied language use is, they must search for the causes. According to Van Dijk 1985: 6, sociolinguists concentrate on the specific language variant or code associated with a social group or category talk of women, children or blacks or with specific town or region. Moreover, what is essential for sociolinguistic research is not only to recognize the plurality and problematic status of functions, but also to take functional questions, questions of social meaning and role, as starting point. Efforts toward a general theory of language as part of social life will remain truncated; otherwise, an assortment of disjointed parts or whatever other metaphor of a body and spirit left dismembered and headless one may wish. Meanwhile, Chambers in Wardhaugh, 2006: 11 states that sociolinguistics is the study of the social uses of language, and the most productive studies in the four decades of sociolinguistic research have emanated from determining the social evaluation of linguistic variants. Everything people do requires the involvement of other people, directly or indirectly. What we find, then, is a huge range of ways of talking that promote the formation and maintenance of social relationships. They have to remind themselves about how important groups and relationships are to living their lives.

2. Language and Society

In understanding language, the aspect of society has to be involved. Chaika 1982: 1 states “language and society are so intertwined that it is impossible to understand one without the other. There is no human society that does not depend upon, is not shaped by, and does not itself shape language ”. Furthermore, Dunbar 2004: 104 argues: Language is concerned with the exchange of information; that, after all, is what it or, at least, grammar is mainly designed to do. However, linguists and those in most other disciplines interested in language have traditionally assumed that the information to be exchanged is factual knowledge about the world; in other words, language evolved to allow our ancestors to exchange information about aspects of the physical world in which they lived. The definition above explains one further key feature of language is particularly important to the bonding of the large social groups, namely the fact that language allows people to exchange information. That, after all, is what language itself is basically designed to do. Its role in social bonding is that it allows them to keep track of what is going on within their social networks, as well as using it to service their relationships. Meanwhile, a society is any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes. People use language to reveal or conceal their personal identity, character, and background, often wholly unconscious that they