Registering registers

• Sándor Hervey ^[1]
  1. [1] University of St. Andrews
• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Vol. 86, Nº 2-3, 1992, págs. 189-206
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The article starts with the observation that ‘register’ is a much used, but poorly defined term. After a brief illustration of the vagueness of this term in the literature, an attempt is made to systematise ‘register’ with the aim of making it into a well-defined analytic notion.

    It is found that, in general, ‘register’ designates a style of language-use that allows for inferences about the language-user, and is, as such, to be located on a common parameter with ‘dialect’ and ‘sociolect’, on a continuum between minimum and maximum user-related information.

    Four types of register are subsequently distinguished and defined: social, tonal, substantive, and genre register; their common and distinctive properties place these in a matrix: SYMPTOMATICSTRATEGICPERSONALITYsocial registertonal registerDOMAINsubstantive registergenre register.

    The final section of the article is devoted to applying the concepts of register to analysing an excerpt from Harold Pinter's The Caretaker.