What is status?

Definition
	Status is a scale of social standing that is often realized in differing socially deictic linguistic forms.

Examples (French, German)
	The choice between the second person pronouns tu and vous in French and du and Sie in German indicates same or differing status between the speaker and addressee.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of status:
	What is an equivalent? What is inferior status? What is a reverential form? What is superior status?

Source
	Lyons 1977b 576–577

Context for this page:

Concept module: status
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): S
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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