1155: Danger of Death Feb 6, 2018

It can be tricky to get people to talk right away, especially within formal settings. Indeed, the idea of "small talk" describes a common sense that such speech is not especially relevant or important, but may be felt as necessary anyway. However, people in an ordinary conversation have as much or as little time as they want, at least in theory, but meanwhile researchers may need to collect data in a setting that is fairly formal and perhaps intimidating (to the participant), so the concern is that the speech will not be as authentic as it ought to be to do proper scientific analysis. Regarded as the father of sociolinguistics, William Labov came up with a solution to this, with the notion that “danger of death” (as a question) elicits a thorough response. The question would be something such as "have you ever been in a situation in which you were in serious danger of being killed?". Clearly, this is a very bold question, and evidently not only was it effective enough to be used relatively frequently, but that got participants to focus more on the question than on being overly careful with their language-use, though some people have criticized the fact that it can also make people nervous, on the spot, and could also prevent people from talking as much as they would otherwise. Ultimately, there is no right answer to the question of how to ask questions.
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