From Austin (1962) through Silverstein (1985) to Blommaert (2015), the impossible search for the totality of a speech situation has opened up useful ways of expanding what we might need to include, even though we know we can never get there. Moving from Hymes’ (1974) SPEAKING acronym to a remodelled SEMIOSIS framework, this paper will look at some recent data from a corner shop and discuss the implications of trying to include objects, affect, place and posture, amongst other things, in our sociolinguistic analysis.