ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a multi-dimensional analysis of functional linguistic variation across social groups in a corpus of conversational Dutch. Three dimensions were interpreted as representing the degrees of informational, narrative, and personal discourse in Dutch conversations. These dimensions were then tested for differences across sex, age, and nation to identify specific patterns of variation in this register. In both face-to-face and telephone conversations, younger speakers and women were found to engage in more narrative and personal discourse but less informational discourse than older speakers and men. Belgians were found to engage in more informational and personal discourse than the Dutch.
