Register Studies - Current Issue

Abstract

This study examines functional differences between texts elicited under different scenarios (both between- and intra-register variation). Text elicitation is used (in linguistics and other disciplines) to control for the conditions of production and in the hopes of observing different reactions to scenarios emulating real-life situations. However, it entails a series of questions: How well does the collected data correspond to real-world situations? How to design scenarios to be meaningfully distinct in terms of the language they elicit? In order to examine the linguistic variability of scenarios and to assess their ecological validity, the present study maps Czech elicited texts onto a previously established general-purpose multi-dimensional model of register variability. One of the takeaways is that scenarios mimicking informal situations are particularly conducive to obtaining responses with high intra-register variation, which makes them more likely than formal ones to reflect variability induced by for example different psychological characteristics of participants.

Abstract

This article reports on a new Multi-dimensional model of graduate student coursework writing in two applied science disciplines from a corpus containing 1,108 texts and 2,008,316 words. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed five dimensions: (1) Conceptual Information vs. Process-Focused Actions (2) Human/Subjective- vs. Entity/Objective- Focus, (3) Attitudinal Monoglossia vs. Precisely Measured Information, (4) Social vs. Physical Science Approaches, and (5) Speculative vs. Finalized Events. The dimensions are analyzed functionally in terms of both register and discipline. The results demonstrate that course papers exhibit distinct patterns of language use, often attributed to the varying purposes of the texts but also related to disciplinary ways of knowing. Findings have implications for disciplinary writing research and representativeness of student writing corpora while contributing to an exploration of register as a continuous construct. The research provides an enhanced understanding of academic coursework writing for stakeholders such as professors, graduate students, writing consultants. (150 words)

Abstract

The study adopts a cross-register approach to style, examining style with relation to the situation of use. While register tends to be avoided by style research as a confounding variable, this investigation of the styles of four American presidents in memoirs, official letters, and public addresses illustrates that adding a register dimension leads to a more accurate, nuanced analysis. The study identifies linguistic features associated with register vs. style variation in the corpus and analyzes intraspeaker differences across registers with regard to the following functional categories: information density, oral style, situation-dependent discourse, and narration vs. immediacy. The results indicate that even authors with a well-defined individual style consistently adjust their language to the demands of the situation, with the most noticeable differences lying between strictly regimented literate registers and the more oral, less conventionalized ones.

This article reviews The Register-Functional Approach to Grammatical Complexity: Theoretical Foundation, Descriptive Research Findings, Application

This article reviews Corpora in ESP/EAP Writing Instruction: Preparation, Exploitation, Analysis