Language in a Social Perspective

Abstract

It has been suggested that one of the main preoccupations of the 1970’s will be a concern with social man. This implies not simply man in relation to some abstract entity such as ‘society as a whole’ but man in relation to other men; it is a particular facet of man in relation to his environment, only it shifts the emphasis from the physical on to the human environment – on to man in the environment of men. A significant fact about the behaviour of human beings in relation to their social environment is that a large part of it is linguistic behaviour. The study of social man presupposes the study of language and social man. If we regard language as social behaviour, this means that we are treating it as a form of behaviour potential. It is what the speaker can do. Considering language in its social context, we can describe it in broad terms as a behaviour potential.