Abstract

Personality as an influential factor in the sociolinguistic interview situation is a topic which has been the focus of much speculation, but little research seems to have been
done by sociolinguists. This paper presents the findings of a study into aspects of personality in the sociolinguistic interview situation. Gregariousness is the facet of
extroversion with which people most commonly associate the notion of an ‘extrovert’. Although this facet was expected to have a significant effect on the participants’
percentage of talk time, the relationship was found to be non-significant. However there was a significant relationship between another facet of Extroversion, namely
Warmth, and the percentage of time the participants spoke in the interview. Significant results were unexpectedly obtained for the association between duration of interviewer
speech and duration of interviewee speech. Clear patterns were also found between the way interviewees said ‘No’ to questions asked by the interviewer, and personality.

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