ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the possibilities for a sociologically informed social semantics; it will be limited primarily to examination of the sociological relevance of speech. The manner of talk, moreover, conditions perceptions of interlocutors, and constrains social relationships and emerging social structures. The identification and explanation of the social behavior associated with Simmelian forms is an enterprise firmly established in sociology, engaging both scholars using surveys or aggregated statistical data and students of, for instance, coalition formation in the small group’s laboratory. Sociological social psychology has a rich and extensive literature on interpersonal influence; representations of several traditions of work appear. The parallel development of skills children acquire which allow them to use their developing linguistic skills effectively in social interaction, has, attracted much less research attention. Children's rapid acquisition of a wide range of grammatical skills is well documented.
