Sociolinguistic analysis of language and culture - Assignment Example

On social status, S1, S2, and S3 most probably belong to the typical middle class --- taking hourly jobs to earn extra cash, etc. They also worry about taxes and prices of sandwiches, etc. On race/ethnicity, S1, S2, and S3 obviously are not native English speakers. S3 could be Chinese, because she mentioned at some point that “im supposed to be able to speak Chinese.” S1s ethnicity is still vague, but for sure she is not a native speaker because she uses the word “bathroom” when referring to the toilet.

S2 could be more fluent compared to S1 and S3, but still a non-native English speaker because she uses phrases such as “its coming out of the same pot,” which is easy to understand but not a common idiomatic expression in English. S4s ethnicity is somewhat hard to determine because of the limited interaction of the other speakers with him. His gender is obviously male, because he was called by his name (Jeremy) the moment he arrived. S1 displays instrumental, regulatory, and personal (Bonvillain, 2008, p.182) communicative styles.

Instrumental because she is sees to not have qualms in satisfying needs: “you guys i_ i have to go_ i have to go leave. i have to go to the bathroom.” Regulatory because she is assertive in speaking what she thinks she wants done: “yo- you wanna put our forms all together, (in this)” and “w- should we go up and like testing testing .” Personal because all throughout the interaction, she expresses her thoughts without hesitation, sometimes even to the point of interrupting the current speaker.

S2 displays interactional and heuristic (Bonvillain, 2008, p.182) communicative styles. Interactional because she tries to maintain the balance in the interaction by allowing each speaker to say their thoughts without interruption for the most part. Her usual verbal nods are “uhuh” and “mhm.” This shows that even if she does not ask a