Sociolinguists study verbal behavior in terms of the relations between the setting, the participants, the topic, the functions of the interaction, the form, and the values held by the participants about each of these (Hymes 1962:25). Verbal behavior (talk and its equivalents) is the center of this definition, but of course a complete description of the system must include gestures or pictures when they are functional alternatives to linguistic signs. Verbal behavior is everywhere structured as a highly cohesive system, and therefore it is a convenient starting point. Others might want to deal with a larger set of communicative acts including, for instance, the dance and exchange of tangible objects.
SETTINGWe shall use the term setting here in two senses, that of locale, or time and place, and that of situation, including the "standing behavior patterns" (Barker and Wright 1954:45-46) occurring when people encounter one another. Thus, situations include a family breakfast, a faculty meeting, a party, Thanksgiving dinner, a lecture, a date. Social situations may be restricted by cultural norms which specify the appropriate participants, the physical setting, the topics, the functions of discourse, and the style. Obviously, situations vary as to which of these restrictions exist and the degree of permissible variation, so that a sermon may allow less style variation than a party. By altering any of these features, one might either create a reaction of social outrage, change the situation to a new one (date becomes job interview), or enter a situation lacking strong normative attributes and allowing maximal variation.One of the major problems for sociolinguists will be the discovery of independent and reliable methods for defining settings. The folk taxonomy of a given society (Conklin 1962:120) might provide lexical categories for the definition of settings. However, the folk taxonomy may be too gross or too fine to indicate classifications of value to the social scientist. The high degree of regularity of 86
