Test fairness or bias may be defined in many different ways, and the existence of possible bias is difficult to demonstrate. Sociolinguistic analysis may be used to check for fairness or bias in test directions, test content specifications, or test items. Four sociolinguistic principles are held to be relevant for this task: (1) pragmatics--that the values stated or implied in test items should be consistent with the values and experience of the examinees, (2) processing--that the process required to arrive at the answer should be explicit in the item stem and appropriate to the test content, (3) formality--that the level of formality in language should not exceed the level required to state the problem effectively, and (4) redundancy--that clarity and completeness are more valuable in item writing than are brevity and avoidance of redundancy. These principles are applied to examples from a word-knowledge test which may be used in the Armed Services aptitude testing battery. Prospects for further research and test development are discussed. (CTM)