I have reviewed my daily interactions during an average week. During this time, I engaged with my various social networks. These networks included family members and close friends of the family, peers within my local Volunteer Surf Lifesaving Club, university peers, and close friends. Interaction with familial members is on a daily basis, while interaction with close family friends, close friends and my peers was less frequent. In these various interactions, I noted that my speech differed depending on whom I was speaking with, my location, and the context of my conversations.
From a linguistic perspective, daily and weekly interactions realised a noticeable alteration of my personal speech within a variety of social contexts. Depending on the type of engagement and geography of the exchange, differing levels of formality were adopted. Specifically, modifications of my speech were observed on differing levels between the more intimate home or social environment and the more formal educational or business setting.
My daily speech constantly shifts depending on who I am addressing and where I am situated. My life is split between Auckland – where I primarily grew up, where my family is, and where I attend university – and up north in Mangawhai, where most of my social network is located.
As my surroundings change, so too does my personal linguistic style shift. When I am conversing with people with whom I am familiar, such as close family and family friends, I tend to maintain a more formal manner of speech. This is due to my upbringing as the daughter of two high-ranking naval officers and my routine exposure to formal and ceremonial events and occasions. As a result of growing up in this more formal and traditional environment, I learned to adopt language relevant to my situation – a solid example of situational variation.
Whilst my immediate home environment could be construed as formal, terms of endearment are commonplace and demonstrate close association between other family members and myself. For example, I frequently use the more formal greetings of ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ as opposed to ‘mum’ or ‘dad’. These formal greetings may be replaced by more casual nicknames only when this is appropriate. However, when conversations become more serious, my language use shifts towards a more formal register. For example, my parents will use my first name as opposed to an endearment. To further highlight the seriousness of a situation, my mother will also use my name in its entirety to make a point. I have also used this linguistic tool in my personal interactions with friends to the same effect.
In my university setting my social interactions with the majority of my peers, which includes speech, is moderately distant. When I am engaged in conversation, my tone is kept casual.
This is dissimilar to interaction with for example, a professor or person in a position of authority. Greetings towards peers are kept informal with the use of ‘hey’ or ‘hi’ followed by their preferred name and as a mark of solidarity. Collectively, those in my cohort are of similar status to myself within the university, and similar in age and upbringing. Therefore, speaking casually is the normal mode for my university peer group.
When addressing a tutor or professor, or someone of rank within the university, I would use a more formal greeting of ‘hello’ with their title – generally ‘professor’, ‘sir’ or ‘miss’. Use of a title for me personally is a mark of respect and in part, an acknowledgement of their higher-ranked status. In this more formal and academic setting, I find I speak more slowly and pay more attention while using more precise wording. I tend to use complete words in my sentences as opposed to their contracted forms. This is perhaps an attempt to articulate my thoughts more clearly and succinctly – to provide an articulate and substantial argument in recognition of situational variation. I particularly avoid the use of colloquialisms and contractions – both in my academic writing and my speech thus showing professionalism through formality.
This is not a consideration when I am in a more social environment with friends. Here I am more likely to speak rapidly and if necessary, re-word or re-phrase something that did not convey the right message initially. This is common when I am in Mangawhai, where the majority of my social activity takes place. The atmosphere in this relatively small beach town is very laid back and community-oriented. Greetings are kept very casual and short, for example, ‘Hey bro! Howzit?’ Language shifts towards accommodating an environment lacking in pretension, and where the beach culture drives very informal and relaxed linguistic styles. Within this social setting, I am prone to use more colloquial language, for example slang, and I do not hesitate to use words such as ‘cheers’, ‘suss’, ‘stoked’, ‘buzzy’, ‘bro’, and ‘sweet’. In a more formal environment such as university, this type of language holds no place in my daily conversations.
A sub-group of my Mangawhai social network is the surf club where I volunteer. Within this setting, another example of intra-speaker variation occurs. The language I use during an average weekend patrol differs from the more formal language I use during official club meetings. Within club meetings, language is more formal where people are addressed still casually by first name, but not as casually as the common beach address of ‘bro’ which is normal in a general surf club environment such as weekend patrol. Similarly, being asked to ‘suss’ a task is common with a surf club environment. This is in contrast to my academic setting, where I would be asked to ‘complete task xyz’ or ‘sort out’ a particular matter.
Arguably, each specific situation and its differing social factors dictate my use of language. In an intimate setting, where I am of a similar age to others in the group or with peers, my language changes from an impersonal and objective style to one of informality and casualness in context of my location and the associated level of formality. A formal situation will dictate a formal context and conversation.
© 2019 Arianna Hogan