Stylistic or register variation:
"No
speaker uses the resources of his or her language in exactly the
same way on all occasions; according to the social circumstances in
which the act of communication occurs, the speaker may choose
different variants of a particular variable. More precisely,
register [or stylistic] variation appears to be as multidimensional
as social variation. Halliday (1978: 33) distinguishes three
parameters of register variation: ‘field’ (within which, variation
is determined by the purpose and subject matter of the
communication), ‘mode’ (which controls variations due to the
channel, written or spoken, of the communication), and ‘tone’
(according to which, variation is determined by the person to whom
the communication is addressed). Thus, in choosing particular
features of language with which to communicate, the speaker/writer
places himself or herself at a particular position in a complex
social matrix. Of course, the range of variants between which a
speaker/writer chooses in any act of communication may be similar or
identical to the range of variants strung along any of the
parameters already discussed (the geographical, the social, and the
historical)."
[Penny (2000),
Variation
and Change in Spanish, CUP: 6-7]
What does style or
register mean?
Exercise VIII
Write a formal letter inviting Professor Terttu
Nevalainen (University of Helsinki) to give a lecture in our
class.
Her address is the following:
PhD, Professor of English Philology,
University of Helsinki
Director of the Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and
Change in English (VARIENG), National Centre of Excellence,
2006-2011
Academy Professor, 2010–2014
Room C621, Unioninkatu 40
Phone +358-(0)9-191 24742
E-mail: terttu.nevalainen(at)helsinki.fi
Exercise IX
Write an informal letter to a friend of yours
inviting him/her to attend Professor's Nevalainen lecture.
Listening comprehension
(Invited Speaker)
