An Evaluation of the Aramaic and Greek Language Criteria... 45 Three fields of disciplines —sociology, social psychology, and anthropol- ogy— have all shown that the native tongue is typically used in family or intimate social settings, while the second language is used in a more public and formal situation41. 3. Language Use in a Multilingual Society Depending on the social context, individuals can ask for or give in- formation to their conversation partners by exploiting either similar or different language styles “for the satisfaction of needs, attainment of goals or consensual validation of attitudes and values”42. Jesus used the com- mands “Go, call your husband and come back” (John 4,16) and “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (John 9,7a) with different goals and intentions, even though both are similarly imperatival statements that use the verb ὑπάγω. The former was probably employed to invoke a response from the Samaritan woman, whereas the latter was a straightforward command— the command was at once carried out to completion (John 9,7b). As we will see shortly, an utterance often gives information and conveys feelings simultaneously43. Following this basic principle, sociolinguists typically seek to investigate three major areas of interests. First, sociolinguists investigate different types of linguistic symbols (e.g. vocabulary, grammar, language choice and styles) that are used to express and reflect social factors44. Second, the participants, the social setting, as well as the topic and purpose of interaction are also matters of extreme importance to sociolinguists. “And the reasons for the choice of one dialect [or language] rather than another involve the same kind of considerations”45. Accordingly, in any multilingual society there are a variety of codes46 that are being used that form a kind of “repertoire” 41 For more details on this, see H. Ong, “Language Choice in Ancient Palestine: A Sociolinguistics Study Based on Four ‘I Have Come' Sayings”, Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics 1 (2012) 63-101. 42 H. Tajfel, Social Identity and Intergroup Relations (Cambridge 1982) 15. 43 I have used utterance here as “any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of the person.” Lyons, Introduction, 172. 44 Holmes, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 4. 45 Holmes, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 6. 46 The term “code” is taken from information theory, and it “can be used to refer to any kind of system that two or more people employ for communication”. Sociolinguists find the term more neutral in comparison to the terms dialect, language, or style. Wardhaugh, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 88.