Comparison between Style and Register
Comparison between style and register
By Denis Vasilev
It has been a huge problem for the sociolinguists to tell the difference between style and register through the years. All of them have their own theories and ideas about these two notions and certainly there will be many more for the future. To be able to compare the two definitions first I will go through their work and afterwards I will express my personal point of view.
Register is a combination of all the parameters of the communicative situation .Register is an occupationally determined variety of language. Register is concerned more with specific language choices whether vocabulary and grammar is formal or informal. Style concerns not only register but looks at the way the words, sentences and paragraphs are put together. According to the role of the speaker, a young lecturer, will speak in different ways when communicating with his wife, his children, his father, his colleagues, his students, when shopping and so on. Each of these varieties will be a register. According to the subject matter or field of discourse, registeral varieties are scientific, religious, legal, commercial, of airport announcers, etc. A register is also determined by the medium or mode of discourse. The main distinction is between speech and writing, but in speech also one may find such distinctions as conversation, discussion, debate, lecture, talk.
Style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meaning. Style is not a fixed attribute of a speaker. Rather, a speaker may use different styles depending on context. Additionally, speakers often incorporate elements of multiple styles into their speech, either consciously or subconsciously, thereby creating a new style. According to Allan Bell language style is the dimension of language where individual speakers have a choice. We do not always speak in consistently the same way. In fact we are shifting the way we speak constantly as we move from one situation to
By Denis Vasilev
It has been a huge problem for the sociolinguists to tell the difference between style and register through the years. All of them have their own theories and ideas about these two notions and certainly there will be many more for the future. To be able to compare the two definitions first I will go through their work and afterwards I will express my personal point of view.
Register is a combination of all the parameters of the communicative situation .Register is an occupationally determined variety of language. Register is concerned more with specific language choices whether vocabulary and grammar is formal or informal. Style concerns not only register but looks at the way the words, sentences and paragraphs are put together. According to the role of the speaker, a young lecturer, will speak in different ways when communicating with his wife, his children, his father, his colleagues, his students, when shopping and so on. Each of these varieties will be a register. According to the subject matter or field of discourse, registeral varieties are scientific, religious, legal, commercial, of airport announcers, etc. A register is also determined by the medium or mode of discourse. The main distinction is between speech and writing, but in speech also one may find such distinctions as conversation, discussion, debate, lecture, talk.
Style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meaning. Style is not a fixed attribute of a speaker. Rather, a speaker may use different styles depending on context. Additionally, speakers often incorporate elements of multiple styles into their speech, either consciously or subconsciously, thereby creating a new style. According to Allan Bell language style is the dimension of language where individual speakers have a choice. We do not always speak in consistently the same way. In fact we are shifting the way we speak constantly as we move from one situation to