3.

AN APPLIED LINGUISTIC ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

3.1. DESCRIPTION OF REGISTER: GENERAL REMARKS
Biber and Conrad (2009) propose an analytical approach to text varieties
described at different levels of generality, based on the identification of registers in
order to develop a framework of analysis. Thus, registers can be identified and
described based on analysis of either complete texts or a collection of text excerpts.
As register is a variety associated with a particular situation of use
(including particular communicative purposes), the description of a register covers
three major components (Biber and Conrad, 2009):
1. the situational context (if produced in speech or writing, interactive etc.);
2. the linguistic
characteristics);

features

(their

typical

lexical

and

grammatical

3. the functional relationships between the first two components (it

results in the systematic patterns of register variation).
E.g. Steps in the register analysis of face-to-face conversation:
-

Description of situational characteristics:

face-to-face conversation

requires direct interaction between at least two people who are

together in the same place at the same time. Both participants discuss
events, thoughts, and opinions related to their personal lives or
something in the immediate context.
-

Description

of

typical

(pervasive)

linguistic

features

requires

consideration of multiple texts from the target register, to discover the

linguistic features that are frequent across texts.
-

Interpreting the relationship between situational characteristics and

pervasive linguistic features in functional terms.

Text Sample Conversation (a group of friends is walking to a restaurant)

Judith: Yeah I just found out that Rebeca is going to the University of Chicago to
get her PhD. I really want to go visit her. Maybe I'll come out and see her.
Eric: Oh is she?
Judith: Yeah.
Eric: Oh good.
Elias: Here, do you want one? [offering a candy]
Judith: What kind is it?
28

Elias: Cinnamon.
Judith: Oh.
Kate: Those are good.
Eric: They're good.
Elias: That's the joy of life.
Kate: Did you guys come through the plaza on your way?
Judith: No.
Kate:

You have to go through it on your way home. It probably would be

empty.
Elias: We drove through it tonight.
Judith: Yeah we'll do that.
Eric: I don't like the color lights on the tree though.
Kate: Did they put fake ones up in there one year?
Elias: No they're just all around on all the buildings.
Kate: Oh yeah.
Elias: I think it would be kind of dumb to put them on the ground. [LSWE Corpus]
3.2.

DESCRIBING THE SITUATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF REGISTERS

The situational characteristics include the physical context, such as the

actual time and place, but also many other considerations.

E.g.
-

For a spoken register such as face-to-face conversation, there are two or

more participants producing language in the spoken mode and interacting
directly with one another in a shared place and time.

For a written register such as newspaper articles, there is a single author

producing language in the written mode for a large number of readers
scattered across different places and times.

Before analyzing the situational characteristics of a text variety, identifying the

variety to investigate implies:
-

recognizing the level of generality of different registers;

appreciating the role of culture in identifying registers;

culturally recognized register distinctions;

in many cases, general registers/genres have short, simple names, while
more specialized text varieties have longer more complex names. For
example "conversation" includes specialized kinds of interaction, such
29

"telephone conversation, "casual conversation among colleagues," and so

on.
3.2.1. A framework for situational analysis
The analysis of register characteristics (situational and linguistic) will
generally focus on the comparison of two or more registers. Particular situational
characteristics will be more or less important, depending on the registers that are
being compared.
E.g. conversation and e-mail messages are similar in many respects:
both are produced by a person addressing another person, often dealing

with personal/social topics;

both are typically interactive, where the second person responds to the first.
One of the main differences between the two registers is the physical mode:

speech versus electronically conveyed writing.

There are a number of sources of information/METHODS that can help you
describe the situational characteristics of a register. Furthermore, some
characteristics will be easy to analyze based on your own experience, while others
will require more research.
The framework for analyzing situational characteristics (Biber and Conrad,
2009: 40)
I.

Participants
A Addressor(s) (i.e. speaker or author)
1. Type:
-

Single (e.g. most spoken registers are produced by individual addressors

who are readily identifiable);

- Plural (e.g. singers in a choir)

Institutional ((e.g. newspaper editorials present the official point of view of a
newspaper, but no author is identified)
-

Unidentified

2. Social characteristics such as age, education, profession, etc. have a major

influence on the language produced in the text
B.

Addressees
1. single (e.g. personal letters and e-mail messages are also often addressed
to an individual);

30

- plural (e.g. university classroom teaching is addressed to a larger group of

listeners, while a major conference lecture might be addressed to a group of
several thousand listeners);
- un-enumerated ((e.g. the addressees of radio broadcasts or television
shows, published written registers).
2. self / other
C. Are there on-lookers?
E.g. in theatrical performance: actors are conversing, addressing one
another on the stage, but that entire conversational interaction is
observed by the audience of on-lookers.
II.

Relations among participants

A. Interactiveness: to what extent do the participants directly interact with one
another?
E.g. In registers like conversation, all participants are present and able to
directly respond to one another.
Participants in an e-mail interchange directly respond to one another,

but that interaction can be spread over days and weeks;

A newspaper article is even less interactive, because the author is not

easily accessible to address a response to (limited interaction through

the "letter to the editor");
B. Social roles: relative status or power
socially equal participants, as in the case of two classmates having a

conversation.
power differences can influence language choices even in a casual

conversation.
C.
D.

Personal relationship: friends, colleagues, strangers

Shared knowledge: personal and specialist

Participants can also have different degrees of shared background knowledge.

III.

Channel
A.

Mode: speech / writing / signing

The difference between speech and writing is intertwined with other

situational characteristics.
E.g. Signing in particular is a fully developed mode of communication,
while there are also much more restricted modes like drum talk or smoke
signals.

31

B.

Specific medium:
- Permanent: taped/transcribed/printed/handwritten/e-mail
- Transient speech: face-to-face / telephone / radio / TV

IV. Production circumstances: real time / planned / scripted / revised and edited
-

In spoken registers, the speaker is producing language at the same time

that he is thinking about what he wants to say.

Written registers typically differ in all of these respects: the writer has
as much time as needed to plan exactly what she wants to write and
then revise the material until conveying exactly the intended meaning.

V. Setting
A. The time and place of communication shared by participants (the physical
context of the communication)
- In many spoken registers, the participants share the physical context
and so they can directly refer to it (e.g., with words like yesterday or
here).
-

Such situation-dependent reference is not appropriate in most written

registers, where the participants do not share the same time or place.

B. Place of communication
-

Private (e.g., conversation, personal letters)/ public (e.g., classroom

teaching, textbooks)

Specific setting ( written texts may have a specific setting by being

published as part of a larger document, such as a chapter within a book)

C. Time: contemporary, historical time period

VI. Communicative purposes
A. General purposes: narrate / report, describe, inform / explain, persuade,
how-to / procedural, entertain, etc.
B. Specific purposes: e.g., summarize information from numerous sources,
describe methods, present new research findings, etc.
Communicative purpose can be described on several different levels:
-

It is usually possible to identify the general purposes of a register, such as

narrating or reporting past events, describing some state of affairs,
explaining or interpreting information, arguing or persuading, providing
procedural information about how to perform certain activities,
entertaining the addressee, and revealing personal feelings or attitudes.

Many registers combine several communicative purposes. For example,

textbooks usually combine descriptive and explanatory purposes.
32

C. Factuality: Does the addressor intend to convey factual information, personal

opinion, speculation, or fiction/fantasy.
D. Expression of stance: epistemic, attitudinal, no overt stance (expressions both of
personal attitudes and the extent to which information is certain or generalizable,
or explanations of the source of the information).
VII. Topic is an open-ended category that can be described at many different levels.
- It is possible to distinguish among very general topical domains, but any
text will have its own specific topics.
A. General topical "domain": e.g., domestic, daily activities business /workplace,
science, education / academic, government / legal / politics, religion, etc.
B. Specific topic
C. Social status of person being referred to.
Table 3. Situational characteristics of academic prose
(adapted from Biber and Conrad 2009: 111-112)
Participants
A. Addressor
1. Single / plural /

usually singular or plural, sometimes institutional

institutional / unidentified
2. Social characteristics

often adult trained professional but varies with

subregister (e.g., can be student)

B. Addressee
1. Single / plural /un-

single / plural, more specialized

enumerated
2. Self / other
C. On-lookers?

other
N/A

Relationships among participants

A. Interactiveness

no direct interaction

B. Social roles

variable

C. Personal relationship

none

D. Shared knowledge

varies

Production and comprehension circumstances

A. Production

time for planning, revising, editing.

Space constraints vary

B. Comprehension

often careful reading but may be skimmed quickly;

opportunity for re-reading

33

Setting
A. Time and place shared by

No shared time or place

participants?
B. Place of communication
1. Private / public public

public (available for others to view)

2. Specific setting

no specific setting

C. Time period

contemporary

Communicative purposes
A. General purposes

informational inform and explain/interpret

B. Specific purposes

vary within an informative, explanatory purpose (e.g.

research article presents new findings, textbook
explains information for novices)

C. Factuality

factual with interpretation

D. Expressing stance

varies, not usually expected to be overt

Topic
A. General topic area

varies

C. Specific topic

varies

Table 4 Distribution of selected situational features in officialese

Participants
A. Addressor
1. Single / plural /

usually singular or plural, sometimes institutional

institutional / unidentified
2. Social characteristics

adult educated (or, at least, literate), but varies with

subregister

B. Addressee
1. Single / plural /unenumerated
2. Self / other
C. On-lookers?

group (more specialized than for newspaper e.g., other

professionals in the academic field, students, etc.)
other
N/A

Relationships among participants

A. Interactiveness

no direct interaction

B. Social roles

Variable social roles

C. Personal relationship

No personal relationship

D. Shared knowledge

Variable

34

Production and comprehension circumstances

A. Production

time for planning, revising, editing. Space constraints

vary.

B. Comprehension

careful reading; opportunity for re-reading, in order to

avoid misinterpretation

Setting
A. Time and place shared by

time or place may be shared or not

participants?
B. Place of communication
1. Private / public public

public (available for others to view)

2. Specific setting

no specific setting

C. Time period

contemporary

Communicative purposes
A. General purposes

Informational

(sending

out

/conveying

factual

information to the public);

Binding two parties in an undertaking
B. Specific purposes

- establishing contact (opening up the channel of

communication);
- describing specific policies; providing procedural
information;
- relaying instructions; making requests

C. Factuality

factual

D. Expressing stance

varies, not usually expected to be overt

Topic
A. General topic area

varies

C. Specific topic

varies

Task
1. Consider the following speech situations (all spoken and directly interactive).
Identify the most important differences in the communicative purposes, social
relationship between participants, and other aspects of the situational context:
-

talking with your advisor during office hours, planning your research
programme (for the dissertation thesis);

talking with your best friend about what you did last weekend.

35

3.3. ANALYSING LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

Linguistic description is also essential in analyzing text varieties from the three
perspectives proposed by Biber and Conrad (2009):
-

In the genre perspective, the focus of the linguistic analysis is on describing

the conventional devices or rhetorical organizations used to structure
complete texts from a variety;

In identifying pervasive lexico-grammatical features, the interpretation of

observed differences is associated functionally with the situational context
in the case of register analysis;

or associated with aesthetic effects achieved by particular authors/speakers

in the case of style analysis4.

Some linguistic features which may also be introduced as part of register
analysis5 are:
1. Vocabulary features (the use of a specific multi-functional word; lists of
the common words in different registers; specialized words; vocabulary
distributions);
2. Content word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs);
3.
Function word classes (determiners, pronouns, modal verbs,
prepositions, coordinators, discourse markers, vocatives and attentiongetters, expletives);
4. Derived words (nominalizations; derived verbs/adjectives/adverbs;
"conversion);
5. Verb features (verb valencies: intransitive, ditransitive, etc; copular
verbs, phrasal verbs; grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice; modal
verb classes; semantic classes of verbs);
6. Pronoun features;
7.

Reduced

forms

and

dispreferred

structures

(contractions,

complementizer that deletion, relative pronoun deletion, other kinds of

ellipsis and incomplete sentences, stranded prepositions);
8. Prepositional phrases;
9.

Coordination

(independent

clause

coordination

or

phrasal

coordination);
10. Main clause types;
4
5

Biber, D. and Conrad, S. (2009): Register, Genre and Style, Cambridge University Press, p. 50.
Ibidem, pp.78-82.

36

11.

Noun phrases and clauses (semantic category of noun: animate,

cognitive, concrete, group noun etc.; determiner / article use; nominal preand postmodifiers; gender reference; noun clauses);
12. Adverbials: phrases and clauses (major type; syntactic realization:
single adverb, prepositional phrase, finite clause, non-finite; syntactic
position: initial, medial, final);
13. Complement clauses (major type: -that-clause, to-clause, wh-clause,
ing-clause; syntactic role);
14. Word order choices (extraposition, particle placement, indirect object
placement, by-passive vs active; clefts and focus devices).
Table 5. Distribution of selected linguistic features in the academic prose
register (adapted from Biber and Conrad 2009:116-117)
1. Nominal features
Nouns

Very common

Nominalization

Extremely common, especially -tion

Prepositional phrases after noun

Extremely common

Attributives adjectives

Extremely common

Nouns as premodifiers of nouns

Common

Personal pronouns

Rare

2. Verb characteristics
Present tense

Far more common than past tense

Past tense

Rare

Modals

Uncommon
Can and may most common

Passives

About 25% of all finite verbs

3. Circumstance adverbials of time

Rare

and place
4. Linking adverbials

Very common

5. Other features
Sentence structure

Standard syntax

Questions

Rare

Type-token ration

Higher than in conversation register

37

Table 6 Distribution of selected linguistic features in officialese

Lexical features

Nominal features

Verbal and

Syntactic

adverbial

features

characteristics
Formal, standard

Nouns

language

nominalizations

and

Complex

verb

Sentence

very

phrases

are

structure:

common

commonly used

standard
syntax

clichd,

Prepositional phrases as

Verb phrases are

Canonical

specialized,
technical terms

postmodifiers of noun
heads: extremely common

marked for tense

(present
more

sentence
patterns

frequently

used),

aspect, voice
abbreviated forms

Nouns as premodifiers of

deontic

accompanied

nouns: commonly used

(expressed

Noun

by

explanatory notes

necessity

statements:

by

extremely

shall)

is

common

often comprise numerals

widespread

in

Questions:

reflecting the reference

official documents

group

elements

number of the official

documents

38

rare