Discourse and society

Discourse community Speech community A group of people who share some kind

of activity

Language users

Communities: group of people who

share substantial amounts of time

together.

Collectives: groups of people that

form around a single repeated

interest.

Networks: groups of people that

are not as tightly knit as speech

communities.

Discourse and language choice In order to communicate accurately they may choose a language

Social identities Linguistic repertoire Number of languages or language

varieties that they use to interact

in their particular communities.

Group of people that speak the same language. Or they

share some other aspects, such as: social, political,

geographical factors, etc.

Factors that influence the use of spoken and

written language Social class Social networks

Structure of the class: education,

socioeconomic and cultural background

They represent different orders of generalization about social organization

Discourse and gender

Relationship between the use of language and the biological category of sex

Gender: as a social category.

Only one part of a person’s

social identity.

Sex: by nature, biologically.

Discourse and sexuality

The relationship between language and sexuality further complicates

the topic of gender and discourse by adding the notion of desire.

Sexuality: notion of desire;

person’s intimate desire for

connection to others that

exceeds their conscious

control

Discourse and identity

Social variables and social identities The use of language

Influence on what we say and how we say it

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