Language Variation: Registers

By:1. Arif Hadziq Fikri (197)2. Ajeng Diar Kartika (200)3. Putri Rahmayanti (206)4. Andri Wahyu Yuli Risanti (209)5. Rizki Ambarwati (210)6. Ahmad Yunandar (211)7. Nenih Nuraenih (213)

Register???A variant of language according to the use.

Crystal (1991, p. 295) defines register as "a variety of language defined according to its use in social situations, e.g. a register of scientific, religious, formal English.“

According to Holmes (2001: 246), register is a variety of language associated with such situational parameters as: addressee, setting, mode of communication, task or topic.

Halliday’s description of register as ‘a variety of language, corresponding to a variety of situation’, with situation interpreted ‘by means of a conceptual framework using the terms “field”, “tenor” and “mode”’ (Halliday, 1985/89: 29, 38)

What is register determined by?

Halliday (1978: 33, 62-64):Every register is determined by three controlling

variables(Three Parameters of Context of Situation )

1. Mode2. Field 3. Tenor

MODEThe choice between speech and writing.

Read these two example of sentences!Which one is more suitable to be used in speaking and which

one in writing?

(1) You can control the trains in this way, and if you do that you can be quite

sure that they‘ II be able to run more safely and more quickly that they would

otherwise, no matter how bad the weather gets.

(3) The use of this method of control unquestionably leads to safer and faster

train running in the most adverse weather conditions.

See how the vocabulary becomes more difficult and the grammar is simpler!

You can control the trains in this way, and if you do that you can be quite sure that they ' II be able to run more safely and more quickly that they would otherwise, no matter how bad the weather gets.

Spoken language

• few content carrying words • high grammatical intricacy• many clauses per sentence

The use of this method of control unquestionably leads to safer and faster train running in the most adverse weather conditions.

Written language

• many content-carrying words• low grammatical intricacy• few clauses per sentence

FIELD

Setting

Purpose

Subject matter or

topic

Time

Place PrivatePublic

Narrate

ArgueEntertainPersuadeDescribe

Inform/ report

ApplyAsk

Daily activities, business /workplace, science, education/ academic, government/ legal/ politics, religion, sports,

art/ entertainment, etc.

PastPresent

TENOR

the social relationship between interactants (the addressor and the addressee)

: student/teacher, friend/friend, customer/ salesperson, child/mother etc.

Functional linguists have suggested three aspects of role relationships:

POWER, CONTACT and AFFECTIVE INVOLVEMENT

affects the choice of vocatives

Aspects of Role

RelationshipsMeaning Choice of Vocatives

Power

concerned with equalities and inequalities of status.For example:• between friends, there is equal

power;• between boss and employee

there is unequal or non-reciprocal power.

Equal → vocative use is reciprocalExample: if I call you by your first name, you will call me by my first name. Or if I use title plus surname, so will you.

Unequal → vocative use is non-reciprocalExample:you may call your doctor Dr. Bloggs, but he may call you Peter.

Contact

range from intimate to frequent to occasional to very rare. • between the spouses is intimate • between distant acquaintances

can be occasional.

Frequent→ we often use nicknames: Johnno, Pete, Shirl.

Infrequent → we often have no vocatives at all e.g. the clerk at the post office, or the bus driver you see every day

Affective Involvement

close friends are affectively involved, whereas colleagues in work places usually are not highly involved with each other affectively.

High→ we use diminutive forms of names and terms of endearment: Georgie-Porgie, Darl.

Low → we use formal "given" names: Peter, Suzanne.

The formality level of the situation

All languages exhibit a number of different levels of usage, usually as many as five levels as

was first proposed by Joos (1962):

1. frozen → ex: I want to welcome you to the Closer Connections Conference, sponsored

in part by Dakota TESL and SDALL.

2. formal → ex: Could you possibly type this up for me by tomorrow?

3. Consultative → ex: Can you finish this after lunch?

4. Casual → ex: Watch the door for me, OK?

5. Intimate → ex: Hey, darlin’, pour me a cuppa joe.

NOW, Try to answer,

What is the mode (spoken/written), field(setting, purpose, topic), and

tenor (role relationship) of each

sentence below?

1. Hey Freddie! Get off your butt and give me a hand here. Shove that chair over closer to the desk.

2.   Oh, Dr. Smith. I'm just trying to tidy my office up a bit and wondered if you'd mind maybe giving me a quick hand with moving some furniture! If you've got time, I mean. It won't take a moment. Now if we could just move this chair over a bit nearer to the desk there. Thanks very much. 

Hey Freddie! Get off your butt and give me a hand here.

Shove that chair over closer to the desk.

Oh, Dr. Smith. I'm just trying to tidy my office up a bit, and I wondered if you'd mind

maybe giving me a quick hand with moving some furniture. If you've got time, I mean.

It won't take a moment. Now if we could just move this chair over a bit nearer to the

desk there. Thanks very much.

Equal power, frequent contact, Low affective involvement

Using slang for friend

Using imperativeUsing politeness

Unequal power, frequent contact, Low affective involvement Using if-clauses for the boss.