Dominance versus subjection

This, in turn, suggests a dichotomy (противопоставление) between a male desire for conversational dominance – noted by Leet-Pellegrini (1980) with reference to male experts speaking more verbosely (многословно) than their female counterparts – and a female aspiration to group conversational participation. One way out of this is, according to Coates (1993), that males are afforded more attention in the context of the classroom and that this can lead to their gaining more attention in scientific and technical subjects, which in turn can lead to their achieving better success in those areas, ultimately leading to their having more power in a technocratic society.

Politeness in speech is described (Brown and Levinson, 1978) in terms of positive and negative face: respectively, the idea of supporting the other’s desire to be liked and admired and not to suffer imposition. In short, women are to all intents and purposes largely politer than men. However, negative face politeness can be potentially viewed as weak language because of its associated hedges and tag questions, a view propounded by O’Barr and Atkins (1980) in their work on courtroom interaction.

Compliments are closely linked to politeness in that, as Coates believes (1983), they cater for positive face needs. Yet, because they do not account for negative face needs, they can be afraid of those not wishing to be imposed upon, especially where this is in a mixed-sex setting. Nevertheless, an increased use of compliments by women in relation to men (Holmes, 1982) could be held by some men to be indicative of her supposed need for assurance, which may be interpreted as a sign of weakness, resulting in a poorer opinion of her.

Women tend towards collaborative language, whereas men generally employ competitive styles as suggested by their silent responses and tendency to interrupt; both of which can be considered ways of competing with the other participants for attention and dominance in the conversation.

Women tend to conversation which is oriented towards the private life, whereas men can be held to have a more public-oriented conversational technique and by their verbal aggression propensities (склонность) to publicly establish an hierarchy within the conversational setting.

Women tend generally to have an agreement motivation in conversation, suggested by their usual half-implicit agreement to maintain topic continuity in a conversation at a rate higher to that of men. Men, on the other hand, tend more towards challenge in conversational motivations.

Conclusion

Thus, Language is one of the most powerful means of social behavior. In the normal transfer of information we use language to send vital social messages about who we are, where we come from, and who we associate with. It is often shocking to realize how extensively we may judge a person's background, character, and intentions based simply upon the person's language, dialect, or single word (Remember Sh. Holmes technic). Given the social role of language, it stands to reason that one way of language study should concentrate on the role of language in society.

Sociolinguistics has become an increasingly important and popular field of study, as certain cultures around the world expand their communication base and intergroup and interpersonal relations into the students room.

The basic notion underlying sociolinguistics is quite simple: Language use symbolically represents fundamental dimensions of social behavior and human interaction. The notion is simple, but the ways in which language reflects behavior can often be complex and subtle. Furthermore, the relationship between language and society affects a wide range of encounters--from broadly based international to narrowly defined interpersonal relationships.

For example, sociolinguists might investigate language attitudes among large populations on a national level, such as those exhibited in the US with respect to the English-only amendment--the legislative proposal to make English the 'official' language of the US. Similarly, we might study the status of French and English in Canada or the status of national and vernacular languages in the developing nations of the world as symbols of fundamental social relations among cultures and nationalities.