Social Language

According to Gee (2013), There are two big classes of social languages: "“Non-vernacular (‘specialist’) social languages”: They are things like the “way with words” used by lawyers, physicists, musicians, carpenters, gang members, video gamers, and a great many more, i.e., socially significant types of people" (p. 23). Second, there are the “Vernacular social languages”: One type of social language – one variety or style of language – is special. This is a person’s “vernacular social language”. This is the variety of language a person uses when he or she wants to enact being an “everyday person” speaking or writing not as a specialist of any sort, but as an everyday person with “common sense”" (p. 24).

According to Gee (2013), "Social languages are different varieties of language that allow us to express different socially significant identities (e.g., talking and writing as a mathematician, doctor, or gang member) and enact different socially meaningful practices or activities (e.g., offering a proof in mathematics, writing a prescription in medicine, demonstrating solidarity with a fellow gang member)...to study language-in-use we need to study more than language alone, we need to study Discourses. Discourses are ways in which we humans integrate words, deeds interactions, thoughts, feelings, objects, tools, times and places to enact and recognize different socially-situated identities." (p. 61).

References:

Gee, J.P. (2013). An introduction to discourse analysis theory and method. London: Routledge.