Talking to Grandma

We use different language forms when speaking with different people, or in different groups.  You don’t usually ask Grandma, “Yo, whassup?”   Over the Thanksgiving holiday, various family members might watch a football game, get together over dinner, and go to church.  While watching the football game, the decibel level is likely to spike at times, profanity will be thrown around,  and words like “interference,” and “defense” will have unique meanings.  Many words, like “quarterback,” “touchdown,” and “tight end” will only be used in that setting.  At dinner, the decibel level is likely to be more steady, with limited profanity, and another set of specialized words, like “table setting,” “gravy,” and “serving” will be used.  Church is likely to be quiet, with no profanity, and yet another set of specialized words.

Exercise:

Ask your students to monitor the linguistic groups they are a part of over a weekend.  They should list each group, the specialized words they used in each setting, and the words they used in one group which they would never use in another.

linguistics in the classroom, sociolinguistics, specialized language

Sociolinguistics