The theory behind English Language

The start of my AS English Language course has made me realise that the way we speak in certain situations is determined by who we are around. Analysing what language we use is something I find very interesting and I'm sure I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the upcoming year. Finding out why, as humans, we say the things we do is very intriguing.

One thing that determines the language that we use is context. For example, one conclusion that was made was that age is a common factor that differs language. The older the people we know, the more formal our dialect is. For example, talking to my grandparents would be completely different to speaking to my best friend. The same goes for parents or teachers. Generally, our speech changes to become more respectful as soon as we are in the presence of an adult or someone older than us.

Furthermore, the formality of our language definitely increases as we talk to important people such as our bosses at work, or when we are being interviewed for a job. The complete opposite trend seems to happen when we're speaking to siblings. So we wouldn't speak with a posh accent and received pronunciation in this situation because it isn't what is natural to us. Stereotypically, we are more relaxed with our family, in an informal environment and this affects our language used.

Factors to do with language such as swearing is also a very interesting thing to look in to. Obviously in some cases, people don't ever curse in any situation. But judging by the responses in my English class today, a lot of people do as well. The responses went from "I swear in front of and to my mum all the time, she doesn't care" to "I wouldn't dare swearing with any of my parents around, but when they're not there I swear with my sister, she won't tell". We can see that ages and genders don't determine whether people swear or not because in some cases it's seen as acceptable, and some it's simply not. The answers ranged from being able to swear with their parents around because it's just 'banter' and not doing it because it is 'frowned upon'. 

But what is the problem? Aren't they just letters in a random order? 

That's a personal opinion I guess, I'll let you decide.