ABSTRACT
Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. Languages provide a variety of ways of saying the same thing – addressing and greeting others, describing things, paying compliments. In most languages, there are many different ways of addressing people. Sociolinguists are also interested in the different types of linguistic variation used to express and reflect social factors. Sociolinguists aim to describe sociolinguistic variation and, if possible, explain why it happens. Status scale points to the relevance of relative status in some linguistic choices. Formality scale is useful in assessing the influence of the social setting or type of interaction on language choice. Language can convey objective information of a referential kind, and it can also express how someone is feeling. In general, the more referentially oriented and interaction is, the less it tends to express the feelings of the speaker.
