This article offers a sociolinguistic analysis of selected dialogue from 66 episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS). While the research record reveals an interest in the use of language on the show, it is argued here that the issue of language in relation to friendship bonds has thus far received insufficient treatment. In response, this study asks if Buffy and her friends (the Scoobies, as they call themselves after the ghostbusting teens in the cartoon Scooby-Doo) are represented as using vernacular variants to demonstrate in-group identity. Marked -y suffix adjectives (e.g. Heart-of-Darkness-y) are adopted as the linguistic variable, and the data are interpreted with reference to Lesley Milroy's social network theory and Mick Short's concept of embedded levels of discourse in drama dialogue. The findings demonstrate that marked -y reveals shifting alliances within the Scooby gang, as it characterizes not the gang as a whole, but only certain members. The findings also suggest that knowledge of how language is used in the formation of friendship groups may be part of sociolinguistic competence (as theorized by Michael Canale and Merrill Swain). Further investigation into whether this is accomplished above or below the writer's level of conscious awareness is offered as a suggestion for future research.

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In their work on William Golding's fiction, Kinkead-Weekes and Gregor (1967) claim that The Inheritors, more concerned with matters of mythic significance, forfeited "most of the possibilities of the dialogue" (71). While in-depth treatments of language in Golding's The Inheritors have since been offered (Halliday 1971; Hoover 1999; Clark 2009), the "possibilities of the dialogue," in particular the conversational register of the Neanderthal characters, remain largely neglected. In this sociopragmatic re-reading of The Inheritors, I employ theory of mind and intentionality (as outlined in Dunbar 2004) as analytical tools in order to 'listen' more closely to the Neanderthals in Golding's text. Paying particular attention to these characters as they express their religious beliefs, engage in storytelling, and work through interpersonal conflicts, I argue that readers are invited to infer that the Neanderthal characters are themselves inferring beings, and further demonstrate that this interpretation has implications not only for how individuals approach the novel, but for the way The Inheritors as a cultural text can be understood to participate in discursively mediating our relationship with the figure of the Neanderthal. 2

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