Spoken and Written Registers

INTERPERSONAL SPOKEN REGISTERS

Situational characteristics

 2 or more partecipants

 direct interaction

 same time and space

 produced in real time

 no time for revision

Linguistic features

 Repetitions

 shortcuts

 yes/no questions

 wh questions

 lots of verbs

 semi modal verbs

 participants taking turns

 imperatives

 pronouns

 simple syntax

 same time and place

Face to face conversation

Conversation is aquired naturally when we are babies. On the contrary, few adults learn to

produce specific written registers like newspaper writing or academic prose.

Sub-registers include telephone conversation and workplace conversation.

It has an emphatic element (the use of adjectives e.g. It was REALLY funny).

The participants take turns and work together to create coherent interactions, at times even

completing each other's sentences.

University office hours

Takes place in a university office between a student and a professor. The student starts the

interaction by coming to the office. It has many markers – Ok, well, alright. Use of

imperatives. Main purpose: problem solving.

Service encounters

Interaction between a customer and an employee. Focus on completing a business transaction.

Genre markers: Can I help you? There you go – Thank you. Politeness.

WRITTEN REGISTERS, GENRES AND STYLES

Situational characteristics

 Many participants

 Indirect interaction

 different time and place

 not in real time

 a lot of time to edit

 no personal feelings -> objectivity

 main goal: sharing information/personal feelings

Linguistic features

 less prononuns

 main use of present and tense in newspapers

 use of passive forms which allows quick skimming

Newspaper writing

subregisters: news analysis, sport reports, editorials, reviews.

An editorial's main purpose is to express an opinion overtly and persuade readers to that

opinion. The newspaper article, usually focused on current and newsworthy events, can be

skimmed. There is an high frequency of verbs and a lot of time for planning. Present and past

participle are the main used tenses. High use of passive forms. In editorials high use of

conditionals to discuss hypotheticals.

Academic prose

subregisters: textbook, research articles.

Textbook: meant to explain concepts to readers who are new to the field. Analyse and

explain. Large use of present tense over past tense. High use of passive verbs to sound

objective. General description, fewer complex words. Great use of passive forms over active

ones.

Research article: written by professional experts of specific fields. Targeted to a specific

audience. Must contribute new knowledge. Often hard for students to understand. Complex

noun phrases, use of passive forms. Divided in four sections: introduction, methods, results,

discussion, each one with a communicative goal. Few genre markers.

Fiction

One of the most complicated registers. The author has an extensive oppurtunity for planning,

revising and editing the text. No interaction between the writer and the reader. The story is

usually set in a fictional world and can be told in first or third person, with the resulting

extensive use of the corresponding pronoun.

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF REGISTERS, GENRES AND STYLES

The fiction novel

most fiction novels have frequent narrative linguistic features including past tense verbs, third

person pronouns, proper nouns and adverbials of time and place, reporting verbs and direct

and indirect reported speech. The greatest difference between 18 and 20 centurynovels has

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to do with spelling and word choice.

18 century novels: the author has a relation with the reader. Noun phrases tend to have

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many modifiers. Much longer sentences. Elaborated linguistic style. Complex noun phrases.

Much longer in general.

20 century novels: the author is hidden. Noun phrases tend to be much less complex. Short

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sentences. Simplet syntax, with more verbs and simple clauses. Descriptive details are often

given in adverbials rather than being embedded inside noun phrases. More verbs, short

clauses, adverbials. Shorter.

The scientific research article

During history science research articles have mantained the basic communicative goal of

conveying the results of scientific inquiry. Semi-mmodal verbs and stance adverbials have

increased in frequency. By contrary modal verbs have undergone a general decrease in use.

Today the researcharticle is much more narrowly defined in terms of textual conventions. First

it was monoreferential and shorter, today it is longer and cites different sources, more

complete.

Genre perspective: many articles adopted the textual conventions of a letter addressed to

the publisher, beginning with salutation and ending with a formulaic closing. Use of the

impersonal "we" to refer to anyone who works in the field. Detailed description.

Register perspective: no 1 person sentences, agentless passive forms and inanimate

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subjects. Few verbs but many nouns and complex noun phrases. "to be" is the most used verb.

Use of the passive voice.

REGISTERS AND GENRES IN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

Linguistic characteristics

 structure of turns

 rare minimal responses

 lexical verbs

 large use of pronouns

 focused on concrete concepts

 interactive

 1 and 2 person pronouns

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 anaphora

 deixis

Situational characteristics

 social roles

 personal feelings and attitudes

 mode and medium

 can be planned, revised and edited

 no direct interaction. Time and space shared to a lesser extent