General characteristics

Lecture 8. Language and Social Interaction

In its simple definition interaction is communication or collaborationbetween two or more people when they cause a speech effect upon each other. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect.

In communications interaction occurs when speakers take turns transmitting messages between one another. This should be distinguished from transactive communication, in which some sources transmit messages. This category includes all new modes of communication, such as cable video, teletext, videotext, telescoping, computers, Internet, TV-conferences, etc. Tele communication also falls under this category: cell phones, pagers, mobile phones, electronic mail are all interactive communications.

In sociology, social interaction is a dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between individuals (or groups) who modify their reactions due to the actions of their partner(s). Social interaction can be differentiated into accidental, repeated, regular, and regulated.

Language switchingis not solely determined by a situation (See the previous lecture). As psycholinguists have pointed out, speakers are not sociolinguistic automata. Speakers can use switching for their own purposes: to influence or define the situation as they wish, and to convey nuances of meaning and personal intention. This can be done in one of the two possible ways:

a) by using two languages. For example, in many areas of the south-western USA there are bilingual Mexican-American com­munities. Their verbal repertoires comprise Spanish and English. The following passage, demonstrating this kind of instant switching, was recorded by John Gumperz and Eduardo Hernandez from a speaker who lives in such a community, and is shown in the discussion on giving up smoking:

‘I didn't quit, I just stopped. I mean it wasn't an effort I made que voy a dejar de fumar porque me hace daño o this or that. I used to pull butts out of the wastepaper basket. I'd get desperate, y ahi voy al basurero a buscar, a sacar, you know?

The Spanish part can be translated as: 'that I'm going to stop smoking because it's harmful to me' and 'and there I go to the waste-basket to look for some, to get some'.

This switch on, in a culture, where English is a dominant language, is presumably subconscious, and has the effect of making the conversation more intimate and confidential. Language mixing, as we can call this rapid switching, has an effect of enabling the speaker to signal two identities at once.

b) a speaker can switch from one language to another com­pletely. David Parkin has described an interesting example of this from Uganda. In Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the sociolinguistic situation is very complex. Many different ethnic groups live in the town; most of them have different vernacular languages. They include Nilotic, Bantu, Arabic, and a small number of speakers of Hamitic languages. In addition the people know and use English and Swahili.

This means that many people in Kampala and elsewhere in Uganda are often presented with the problems of language choice. Many people must speak English, Swahili, the official languages of Uganda, as well as their own vernaculars. Meetings and other social gatherings are conducted in English and Swahili; but in everyday communication the people use different vernaculars; thus creating ethnic tension and hostility.

The study of the way in which language is used in conversa­tions of this and many other types is an important part of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguists have looked at the way in which language can be used for manipulating relationships and achieving particular goals. They have also looked at the rules for conducting conversation and its interpre­tation, and at the way these may differ from society to society.

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