Levels of analysis and social class differences in language.

Previous studies havt demonstrated that certain differences in speech behavior can be related to the social characteristics of speakers. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the effect of level of linguistic analysis on correlations observed between language variables and status variables. Three levels of analysis of a linguistic construction were selected for study: grammatical form, lexical choirs and use of a predication type. The corpus was the sneeoh of forty-eight dyads of children (male, female; low, middle socioeconomic status: Negro, white) performing three problem solving tasks. The grammatical form of the construction differentiated between social groups, sexes and races. Lexical choice within the construction seemed to depend primarily on the task itself. The findings demonstrate that status differences in speech behavior at one love 1 of linguistic analysis cannot be taken as evidence that similar status differences exist at another level. (Author/ 1B)