Review of Related Studies
According to Gumperz 1971, p.223 in the book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
, sociolinguistics is an attempt to find correlations between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur. Social
structure itself may be measured by reference to such factors as social class and educational background; we can then try to relate verbal behavior and
performance to these factors. The most important thing of sociolinguistics lays on the role of social dialect which is perform by speakers in a certain area as it is
clearly stated from this quotation : The bulk of sociolinguistic enquiry falls under the heading of
performance, since it deliberately highlights the great heterogeneity within peoples speech. For example, the differences between speakers
caused by dialectal variation are compounded by variation within the speech of a single person, as with the switch from formal to informal
styles,
according to
the social
context http:www.encyclopedia69.comengdsociolinguisticssociolinguisti
cs.htm. March 5, 2010.
Basically, the scope of this study is Sociolinguistics. It is the study of relationship between language and society. It explains why people speak
differently in different social contexts. It also identifies the social functions of language. In sociolinguistics, the way people use language in different social
contexts can provide huge information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community. We can also know why men and
women talk differently and why women tend to be more related to the word gossip than men. Actually, in all conversations people choose their words
carefully according to social factors and social dimensions or in other words
social factors and social dimensions create different language varieties Holmes, 1992.
According to Holmes, social factors here include four things, they are participants, which deal with who is speaking and who are they speaking to;
setting or social context of the interaction where they are speaking e.g. home, work, campus; topic, which deals with what is being talked about; function, that
deals with why are they speaking. The social dimensions here include four scales. They are social distance scale concerned with participant relationships whether it
is intimate high solidarity or distant low solidarity, it is useful in emphasizing that how well we know someone. Status scale concerned with participants
relationships whether it is superior high status or subordinate low status. Formality scale is related to the setting or type of interaction whether formal high
formality or informal low formality, it is useful in assessing of the social setting or type interaction on language choice. These scales are useful in assessing the
influence of the social setting or type of interaction on language choice. The language used will be influenced by the formality of the setting. The
language choice at a religious service will be very different from language choice on a friendly chat; functional scales, which relating to the purposes or topic of
interaction, that consist of two things, referential information; whether high information content or low information content and affective solidarity; whether
low affective content or high affective content. Though language serves many functions, the last two identified in these scales are particularly pervasive and
basic. Language can convey objective information of a referential kind, and it can also express the feeling of someone.