Formal Register

10 Key excerpts on "Formal Register"

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  Text, Context and the Johannine Community

  A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Johannine Writings

  • David A. Lamb(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • T&T Clark

    (Publisher)

  29 Halliday de ¿ nes dialect as ‘variety according to the user’ and register as ‘variety according to the use’. 30 Halliday’s understanding of register will be con-sidered in more detail below, alongside that of the American socio-linguist Douglas Biber. For both these scholars, the fundamental aspect of the register of a given text is that it carries with it signi ¿ cant informa-tion about its social context. 31 Indeed, ‘[t]he sensitivity of language to its 26 Crystal, Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics , p.409. 27 ‘Registers…when they are distinguished from styles, tend to be associated with particular groups of people or sometimes speci ¿ c situations of use. Journalese, babytalk, legalese, the language of auctioneers, race-callers, and sports commen-tators, the language of airline pilots, criminals, ¿ nanciers, politicians and disc jockeys, the language of the courtroom and the classroom, could all be considered examples of different registers. The term “register” here describes the language of groups of people with common interests or jobs, or the language used in situations associated with such groups.’ Janet Holmes, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics , (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2nd ed., 2001), p.246. Similarly, Wardhaugh states, ‘Registers are sets of language items associated with discrete occupational or social groups. Surgeons, airline pilots, bank managers, sales clerks, jazz fans, and pimps employ different registers’. Wardhaugh, Introduction to Sociolinguistics , p.51. 28 Ferguson draws a parallel between the systematic analysis of register varia-tions and ‘the extensive publications in German on Fachsprachen “occupational languages” and in English on “Language for Special Purposes” (mostly on commer-cial and scienti ¿ c registers of English)’. Ferguson, ‘Dialect, Register and Genre’, p.16. 29 Crystal, Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics , p.409.

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  Issues in Sociolinguistics

  • Oscar Uribe-Villegas(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Mouton

    (Publisher)

  Indeed it is by their register range, and not by their linguistic features, that 'developed' languages are recognised and distinguished from 'undeveloped' ones (e.g., Ferguson, 1968). 198 Jean Ure and Jeffrey Ellis Nevertheless, although the fact of register and its importance, for example, in language development, is recognised now by many workers in the sociolinguistic field, investigations are still only beginning: small parts only of a very few languages have been examined, and a great deal remains to be done on the nature of the relation between language patterning and social reality. In the following paper we give a brief account of some of the methods that may be employed and some preliminary investigations. Register and language A register is a subdivision of a given language, a 'situational variety' constituted by a selection of choices from among the total linguistic options offered by that specific language. Some people use only one language on all occasions and have all their registers in one language, but there are many communities which draw on more than one language for their different purposes, and in that case a member of that com-munity will have different registers in different languages. It was in fact in relation to bilingualism that register was first observed (Gum-perz, 1959; Ferguson, 1958) and named (Reid, 1956). (The term register was introduced by Reid; Gumperz and many American lin-guists and anthropologists use the term code when discussing the same phenomena.) Thus a given speaker's idiolect may consist of a repertory of registers drawn all from one language or from entirely different lan-guages and/or from dialects of the same language. Different dialects of the same language may include different local varieties of the same language and also different social varieties (Ellis, 1965). Register, as we have said, is a norm that obtains in a particular language community.

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  Speaking With Style

  The Sociolinguistics Skills of Children

  • Elaine Andersen, Elaine Slosburg Andersen(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  y is used in the market-place or at home. Ferguson (1959) observed an analogous situation (which he labelled ‘diglossia’) in a number of monolingual communities, where, instead of languages varying with function, speakers simply use different forms of the same language – e.g., classical Arabic in the classroom and colloquial Arabic in the student lounge.

  Although the registers of a given language may not differ from one another as greatly as classical Arabic does from colloquial Arabic, they are linguistically distinct varieties of speech. Each register displays a systematic language patterning used in a specific type of situation; each represents a well-established convention within a language community. As Verma points out: ‘[Registers] cut across dialect varieties and may be used for specific purposes by all the speakers/writers of a language’ (Verma 1969: 294).

  Registers, then, are far from being marginal aspects of a language; rather, they determine how language is used in varying situations. The range of registers which exists in a community covers the total range of our language activity (Halliday et al. 1964: 89).

  Though registers are shared by a number of speakers, speakers differ as to whether their control of these registers is active or only passive. Most of us recognize and respond to many registers that we never use, an example being the language of sermons. The range of registers controlled by a given individual, and his degree of control over each, presumably reflect that individual’s language experience. The registers people have in their active repertoires, then, are probably only a subset of those available, a subset governed by factors like sex, age, occupation, and education.

  The parameters of register

  Registers can be categorized along a small number of specific dimensions. There are several models of categorization in the sociolinguistic literature (e.g., Halliday et al. 1964; Chiu 1973; Ure and Ellis 1972; Besnier 1986a, 1986b), most of which contain three to five general dimensions. (For a more detailed account of many of the earlier models, see Ellis and Ure 1969.) The present discussion will be limited to classification by three main dimensions: mode, field, and manner

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  Readings in the Sociology of Language

  • Joshua A. Fishman(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Mouton

    (Publisher)

  If we failed to note these differences of register, we should be ignoring an important aspect of the nature and functioning of language. Our descriptions of languages would be inaccurate and our attempts to teach them to for-eigners made vastly more difficult. It is by their formal properties that registers are defined. If two sam-ples of language activity from what, on non-linguistic grounds, could be considered different situation-types show no differences in grammar or 152 M.A.K. Halliday, Angus Mcintosh, and Peter Strevens lexis, they are assigned to one and the same register: for the purpose of the description of the language there is only one situation-type here, not two. For this reason a large amount of linguistic analysis is required before registers can be identified and described. It is one thing to make a general description of English, accounting, to a given degree of deli-cacy, for all the features found in some or other variety of the language. Most native speakers will agree on what is and what is not possible, and the areas of disagreement are marginal. It is quite another thing to find out the special characteristics of a given register: to describe for example the language of consultations between doctor and patient in the surgery. For such a purpose very large samples of textual material are needed. Moreover much of the language activity that needs to be studied takes place in situations where it is practically impossible to make tape record-ings. It is not surprising, therefore, that up to now we know very little about the various registers of spoken English. Even studies of the written language have only recently begun to be made from this point of view. For this reason we are not yet in a position to talk accurately about registers; there is much work to be done before the concept is capable of detailed application.

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  Thinking Arabic Translation

  A Course in Translation Method: Arabic to English

  • James Dickins, Sándor Hervey, Ian Higgins(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  15.2 Register ‘Register’ is a term used in so many different ways that it can be positively mis-leading. It is possible to isolate at least four theoretically distinct types of register that might be used in the analytic description of language (Hervey 1992). For our purposes, however, these fall into two types of register that it is methodologically useful for translators to distinguish. 15.2.1 Tonal register The fi rst is what we shall call ‘tonal register’. This is the feature of linguistic expression that carries affective meaning, which we examined in Section 8.4. That is, it is the tone that the speaker takes – vulgar, familiar, polite, formal, etc. The affective meaning of a feature of tonal register is conveyed by a more or less deliberate choice of one out of a range of expressions capable of conveying a given literal message – compare, for example, ﺖﻤﺼﻟا ءﺎﺟﺮﻟا as opposed to ﺖﻜﺳا or سﺮﺧا or in English ‘Would you mind being quiet’ or ‘Silence please’ as opposed to ‘Shut up!’. As these examples suggest, the effect of tonal registers on listen-ers is something for which speakers can be held responsible, in so far as they are deliberately being obscene, polite, etc. In handling tonal register, it is clearly important for the translator to accurately assess where the ST expression comes on the SL ‘politeness scale’ and to render it with an expression as close as possible to a corresponding TL degree of politeness. But it is not enough just to have a repertoire of expressions capable of injecting various affective meanings into a given literal message. Equally important is the situation in which the expression is used: different sorts of social transactions – preaching in a mosque or in a church, defending a client in court, selling a car to a male customer, etc.

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  Theory of the History Classroom

  • Manuel Köster, Holger Thünemann, Meik Zülsdorf-Kersting(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wochenschau Verlag

    (Publisher)

  To put it in systems theory terms: a term used in class may exist in many registers (technical, academic and even colloquial), so using a term is not a sufficient indicator as to whether the act of historical think-ing or the mental schema it is structurally coupled with (in a different system, namely the speaker’s historical consciousness) is subject-specific . 7.2.3 Pedagogical register Some authors differentiate further, between academic and school register, view-ing the latter as a means of acquiring the former (cf . Schmölzer-Eibinger 2013, 26, note 2) . In contrast, Feilke (2013, 117) takes the view that school language is shaped by “didactic fictions” (ibid .) and language games specific to the institu-tion . Both are regularly described in relation to communication in the classroom (e . g . Becker-Mrotzek/Vogt 2009; on classroom history cf . Meseth/Proske/ Radtke 2004) . Feilke sees elements specific to school language in what he calls “didactic genres”, including the précis in German language and literature classes, texts written when interpreting historical sources, and the lab report in science classes . “The forms are didactically conceived and justified . They are designed to © Wochenschau Verlag, Frankfurt/M. 176 support certain skills and promote their development” (Feilke 2013, 117) . In contrast, Riebling (2013, 134 f .) does not see school language as a separate reg-ister, but rather as a lexical sub-area of academic register that comprises “specific terms and forms of expression designed to organise school life and classroom education” (ibid ., 134) . In our model, with Feilke, we assume that “school lan-guage” is a separate register that can be distinguished from the academic register due to its function . While the academic register enables speakers to take part in specialised discourses, the school register serves to organise the teaching and learning process .

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  From Language to Creative Writing

  An Introduction

  • Philip Seargeant, Bill Greenwell(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  All these are elements of an academic register , and they are part of the toolkit you use to express yourself in an academic environment. It Writing and register From Language to Creative Writing: An Introduction 72 would be inappropriate, for example, to write an academic essay using the same type of language that you use for writing a text-message to a friend. Not only would it give the wrong impression to the teacher or tutor, but the type of language would not allow you to discuss the complex concepts and issues that are involved in academic study. In effect, using the wrong type of language would not get the job done properly. In this chapter we’ll look at what comprises a register, and at how people use different registers in their everyday lives. In doing this, we’ll concentrate, for the most part, on examples of written language. We’ll examine how different activities determine the type of language used for that activity, and at how written texts frame our expectations about their meaning from the way they conventionally organise information. Language defined by its use is also a feature of spoken discourse of course, and the chapter will also discuss a few examples of spoken interaction drawn both from real-life settings and from literature and drama. In fact we’ll begin by looking at the differences between spoken and written language. As you will see, the distinction between spoken and written language is also in part a result of the different purposes to which these two ways of using language are put. In other words, speech and writing are different tools that we use for different types of task. Differences between speech and writing If you were asked what the difference is between speech and writing you might well reply that the answer is startlingly obvious: one involves making a variety of sounds with your voice, while the other involves making marks on a piece of paper or on a screen.

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  Exploring the Spanish Language

  An introduction to its structures and varieties

  • Christopher Pountain, Christopher J. Pountain(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  OSD, for example, uses the following labels:

  Table 7.1

  English term	Spanish term	Comments
  archaic	arcaico	No longer in common use, but familiar from some registers, e.g. literary, or used humorously
  colloquial	familiar	See 7.1
  criticised usage	uso criticado	See 1.3 and 8.1
  dated	anticuado	Still used by older generations
  euphemism	eufemismo
  formal	formal	Belonging to ‘high’ formal written register
  humorous	humorístico
  ironical	irónico
  journalese	lenguaje periodístico	See 7.2.1
  literary	literario
  obsolete	obsoleto	No longer used (but may be found in older texts)
  pejorative	peyorativo
  poetic	poético
  set phrase	frase hecha
  slang	argot	See 7.1.3
  technical language	lenguaje técnico
  used to or by children	lenguaje infantil
  vulgar	vulgar	Has obscene connotations

  Some words and constructions are marked in the sense that they are particularly associated with certain registers, while others are unmarked, carrying no such associations. To express the notion ‘dirty’, for example, the Spanish adjective sucio, which is unmarked for register, can be used in all situations. Guarro, by contrast, is restricted in usage to colloquial register (informal tenor and spoken mode), while inmundo

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  The Language of Schooling

  A Functional Linguistics Perspective

  • Mary J. Schleppegrell(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Because the choice of different lexical and grammatical options is related to the functional purposes that are foregrounded by speakers/writers in responding to the demands of various tasks, major differences are revealed in contrasting the constellation of register features that typically occurs in written academic language with that of informal spoken language. The spoken/written dimension is most in focus here, since this difference in mode is highly relevant to the linguistic choices being made. But both writing and speech can take a variety of forms, depending on purpose, interactants, and other contextual variables, and the register differences which characterize written language in these examples are also features of much school-based spoken language, especially the spoken language used to summarize and present information. Contrasting everyday, informal interaction and the language typical of schooling illustrates how these registers are broadly different because what is being done with language varies greatly in these two contexts. Most obviously, informal interaction is jointly constructed in real time, so the grammatical choices are those that are functional for the collaborative nature of this discourse. School-based texts, on the other hand, more typically reflect in their grammatical choices the fact that speaker and listener or writer and reader do not interact directly and that the speaker/writer has time for planning and revision. But the registers also realize the different kinds of ideas, role relationships, and patterns of text that enable speakers/writers to respond to the needs of these different contexts. The grammatical choices evoke for participants the social meanings that the language helps instantiate.

  The grammatical and lexical features of the registers of school-based tasks are naturally related to what language is expected to accomplish in the school context, so analysis of the grammar provides a better understanding of the functions of such texts in construing knowledge and in helping students effectively participate in advanced literacy tasks. This chapter demonstrates how these features are functional for the kinds of tasks students are expected to perform at school.

  LINGUISTIC CHOICES REALIZE SOCIAL CONTEXTS

  The challenge for all language users is to create texts that realize the expected social context; cohesive texts that are coherent with respect to register. Chapter 2 showed that texts that fail to effectively signal the context in which and for which they are created are often seen as lacking coherence. Children who do not present their sharing time contributions with the expected register variables, for example, are often judged negatively by their teachers, even when their contribution is comprehensible. Informal definitions likewise fail to signal the academic context that the formal definition signals participation in. Texts that do not signal understanding of the school context present the language user as a person who is not responding adequately to the situation in realizing the language task.

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  Using Russian

  A Guide to Contemporary Usage

  • Derek Offord(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The exposition of such ideas may follow established patterns. Language in the higher register is therefore relatively well organised and formal and may have recourse to set phrases and formulaic expressions. It eschews elements that can be identified as colloquial ( 1.3.1 ), including regional variation ( 1.5 ). Vocabulary may be sophisticated, specialised or terminological. Syntax may be complex. Constructions containing reflexive verbs used in a passive sense ( 11.8 ), gerunds ( 11.11.1 ) and active participles ( 11.11.2 ) are used freely. Nouns in the same case, especially the genitive, may be ‘threaded’ together (so-called нaни ´ зывaниe пaдeжe ´ й ), e.g. прeдстaви ´ тeль Mинистe ´ рствa вну ´ трeнних дeл Гeрмa ´ нии , (lit) a representative of the Ministry of the Interior of Germany . Nouns may be preceded by adjectival phrases containing nouns, e.g. пe ´ рвоe в ми ´ рe коммунисти ´ чeскоe госудa ´ рство , the first communist state in the world . Within this register the following functional styles may be identified. (a) Academic/scientific style ( нaу ´ чный стиль ) The purpose of this functional style is to report information. The style may be appropriate in any medium from a monograph, learned article or textbook to a lecture or seminar. It may also be used in many fields, indeed in any academic discipline from the natural sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry and biology), through the social sciences (e.g. politics, sociology and economics) to the humanities (e.g. philosophy, philology and the study of literature). (It should be noted that the Russian word нaу ´ кa , like the German word Wissenschaft , has a broader range than the English science , embracing all academic work, not merely the natural and social sciences.) The language of the academic style is characterised by logical and orderly development (hence the copious use of transition words ( 5.2 )).

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