RIASSUNTO

PER PROVA IN ITINERE

INGLESE 2

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CHAPTER 8
Text linguistics
8.1 WHAT IS TEXT?
The word text is from the Latin word texere, that meaning weave. A text is a set of sentences
(spoken or written) that are linked together to create meaning. They are linked together following
two main principle, that are coherence and cohesion.
Texts cannot be understood fully without understanding their context in that discourse. A text may
be long like the bible or short like a “no smoking” notice.
8.2 IS THERE A GRAMMAR OF TEXTS?
Zellig S. Harris outlined a formal method of text analysis in 1950s:
1. Analyse the grammatical structure of each sentence in the text to reveal clauses,
nominalization, adjectival phrases, prepositional phrases etc.
2. Examine the lexical content of subjects, verbs and objects to see if there are any regularities
of distribution.
8.3 COHESION AND COHERENCE
Coherence and cohesion are semantic concept used in text linguistics to describe the properties of
written texts.
 Coherence is something at a deeper level, it’s about the logical structure of the text;
 Cohesion is the appropriate connection between all the parts of the text at a more superficial
level.
In other words, coherence is to do with the ideas and support you come up with and the way you
present them – do you organize them in a way that makes sense and is logical. For example: if I say
“It’s raining, there is a storm” I can’t say then “I go out for a walk”.
Cohesion, on the other hand, is the use of linguistic devices to link sentences together. For example,
linking words such as “however”, “and” etc..
Repetition  When the same word occurs throughout a text, it helps bind the sentences of the text
together.

A further source of cohesion comes from words which are related to one another. This form of
cohesion is called lexical cohesion:
 Synonymy  describes two words which means the same thing (John went to the
automobile centre. He bought a new car.)
 Hyponymy  is a relation between words where one word represents a type of class
represented by another word (John bought a new car. It was a hatchback.)
 Meronymy  is a relation such that one word expresses a part of a class represented by
another word (John’s new car is top of the range. It has a very powerful engine.)
Substitution  when a word is substituted by another more general word to avoid repetitions
(which icecream would you like? I would like the pink one – instead of ice-cream).
Ellipsis  is the omission of a word when the phrase must be repeated (ex. Jane went to school, but
Harry didn’t).
8.4 REFERENCE
Reference  is a relation between objects in which one object designates or acts as a means by
which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to refer to the
second object, that’s called a name for the second object. The second object, the one to which the
first object refers, is called the referent of the first object. A name is usually a phrase or expression,
or some other symbolic representation. Its referent can be everything, also an abstract concept.
Reference  is the relationship between linguistic elements and non-linguistic elements. There are
two referential devices that can create cohesion:

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  Anaphora when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously
identified, to avoid repetition (ex: yesterday, I met Harry, he is very kind)
 Cataphora is the opposite of anaphora, so a reference forward in the text (ex: if you want
them, there are cookies in the kitchen).
Another referential device, which does not create cohesion, is called exophora.
 Exophora is the reference to something outside the text (“That chair over there is John’s
said while indicating the direction of the chair referred to).
o Indefinite articles  are used to introduce something or someone in a text (A man in a
dark suit knocked on my door)
o Definite articles  are used to talk about things already introduced in the text (the street
was dark)
8.5 JUNCTION

- Junction:
The term junction is used to refer
to a set of words that relate
prepositions to one another in
various
ways. There are junctions that
are interpretable in many ways in
the text, such as "and" and "but".
- Junction:
The term junction is used to refer
to a set of words that relate
prepositions to one another in
various
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ways. There are junctions that
are interpretable in many ways in
the text, such as "and" and "but".
Junction The term junction is used to refer to a set of words that relate prepositions to one
another in various ways. There are junctions that are interpretable in many ways in the text, such as
"and" and "but".
Conjunctions  are words that relate propositions to one another in a variety of ways. We have:
 coordinate conjunctions, that are used to give equal emphasis to two main clauses (My
mother has black hair and blue eyes)
 subordinate conjunctions, that are used to link the main clause and the subordinate one,
which are two different events (My dad got home after buying me a present).
Conjunctions can be also:
 causal (because, for this reason),
 temporal (then, next, after that),
 contrastive (but, however).
8.6 A METHOD FOR ANALYSING COHESION AND COHERENCE
With a table we can analyse the sentences of the text into their clauses and their clauses’
grammatical constituents. This includes clauses in which the subject is not overtly expressed,
although, some of these are not shown in the table. Grammatical subjects that are not overtly
expressed in certain kinds of embedded clauses are in brackets. You read the table across the rows,
giving you the original word order; each column you cross tells you what is in each grammatical
category that makes up the sentence. In each column we can see which sorts of expressions hang
together and which sorts of lexical relationships obtain between them. In the rows we can see which
kind of grammatical subjects and complements are combined with which kinds of verbs. What
counts is not the grammar but the role that they play.
Reiteration: when some words or related words are repeated. In some texts we find that reiteration
involves sense relations such as synonym, antonymy, meronymy and hyponymy.
(pay(ment), pay(out))
Collocation: co-occurrence of lexical items in the same environment: two or more items can be
close together or relatively far apart, grammatically combined or found in different sentences.
However, we need to distinguish collocations that occur in the language at large and those that
occur in specific texts. Some words create a cohesive effect across sentences; however, cohesion
cannot easily be distinguished from coherence. In other such cases, the reason for the co-occurrence
of such terms in the same text is due to their role in the conceptual frame for legal proceeding.
8.7 SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SEQUENCE
Texts have a level of organization sometimes called superstructure. This term refers to the fact
that texts have recognizable parts that are organized according to conventional patterns (example of
the division of a newspaper report).
It’s important to distinguish between story (chronological sequence of episodes) and plot (the order
in which the text presents them). In addition to the background knowledge, the use of tenses and
other temporal indicators help the reader to sequence the episodes.
Deictic centre  is a reference point in relation to which a deictic expression is to be interpreted. Is
most typically the present time, location, participant role, and so forth of the speaker.

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CHAPTER 23
Speech, Writing and Discourse Type
23.1 MEDIUM VERSUS DISCOURSE TYPE IN LANGUAGE VARIATION
People tend to write differently from the way they speak. But how far can we account for this in
terms of the medium itself and how far is it a consequence of situational features? Characteristic
features in spoken and written language:
SPOKEN LANGUAGE WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Degree of fluency and planning: Degree of fluency and planning:
-It’s composed in real time > it’s a kind of -No filled pauses or incomplete words or
stream of consciousness. retraction.
-Minimal pre-planning of stretches of -There’s some degree of repetition but words
language. do not come immediately after one another.
-Various type of retraction such as postposed -Pre-planning of stretches language.
hedging phrases, and incomplete words. -More complex grammatical structures
-Filled pauses or a kind of ‘go into autopilot’
(keep repeating the same word whilst she
thinks of what say next).
-Sequence of very short independent clauses.

Level of formality: Level of formality:

-Informal text. -Formal vocabulary.
- It tends to make use of contractions rather -Preference for more formal Latinate synonyms
than full forms. in cases where there are also informal
- Informal vocabulary. alternatives

Interactional features Interactional features:

-It’s an interactive text. -It can be less interactive with only a single
-Turn-taking between the two speakers narrator.
-Some features of the conversational text can
also occur in certain types of written language
(i.e., online chat-room etc.).
-Notion of punctuation.

23.2 Medium (the primacy of speech or the primacy of writing?)

Primacy of speech  linguistics mean that language was originally a purely spoken phenomenon.
We learn at first how to speak and then to write, so if we want to understand how language works,
we should focus our attention on its spoken form, without importing any assumption that are based
on the written medium.
Primacy of writing  most people’s notion of ‘sentence’ comes largely from written language,
where sentences are entities delineated by full stops. The systematic punctuation of sentences,
broadly as it exists today, dates only from the 17th century.
If we can have railcard as single word, why can’t we also have ridingboots? In speech, the issue
hardly arises because the pronunciation is the same, regardless of orthography; however, in writing,
it’s a major issue because present-day written usage is codified in terms of ‘correctness’.

23.2.2 Things that you can’t do in writing, but you can do in speech
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The two key meaning-bearing elements that are present in speech but not in writing are prosody
(i.e., stress, loudness, intonation, syllable duration, pauses etc.) and non-verbal communication or
body language. In written language sometimes we must use metapragmatic comment to explain
an ambiguous speech act that could be wrongly interpreted (intonation, evaluative comment,
emphasize an element and so on). So, in speech adding an extra stress and a fall-rise intonation
we can change the effect to one word; but in writing to give the same effect we have to change the
sentence structure or using a different typeface.
23.2.3 Features unique to written language
Written language has a number of valuable features on its own. The most important of these are
punctuation, typeface, and font shift.
 Punctuation: at first, it’s important because it gives an help to the reader in distinguishing
the grammatical structure of the text and helping to resolve any ambiguities; -it enables a
writer to do things which are possible in speech only by changing the wording or sentence
structure. Use of quote marks has two functions: 1- to mark something out as direct speech
or a quotation without needing a speech act verb or other explicit marker; 2- in an attitudinal
function, to distance oneself from a word or statement or to question its meaning.
 Typeface: plays an important role in suggesting overall ethos for a text. Different kind of
typefaces are used depending on what we want to say (advertising for example that makes
creative use of typefaces): serif typeface and sans serif typeface.
 Font shifts: can have multiple roles. Italics can be used for emphasis but also to indicate
that a word belongs properly to a language other than English. Word initial capitals may be
used to distinguish between general and specific uses of a word, acronyms.
23.3 DISCOURSE TYPE
23.3.1 Classifying texts: text-internal and text-external criteria
Discourse type or register is a generic term for systematic variation between different kind of
texts, which avoids some of the complexities introduced by other terms in the area of language
variation. There are other two ways of approaching variation according to discourse type:
 a text-external approach  draws on features such as the characteristics of the anticipated
audience (age, social class, gender, educational level etc.), the characteristics of the author,
the nature of the relationship between the author and the audience (e.g., formal, or
informal), the purposes of the text and so on.
 a text-internal approach  examines which linguistic features predominate. By
comparing checklists of features, it’s possible to group texts according to similarities in their
use of language without considering any text-external criteria.

23.3.2 Genre, text-type, style, and sublanguage

On the one hand, genre is a very common way of referring to a discourse type. It’s best used to
describe a classification of texts where texts-external criteria have a decisive role. It can be
defined as ‘a relatively stable set of conventions that is associated with a socially ratified type of
activity’. So, when we talk about the newspaper editorials as a genre, we refer both to its conditions
of production, distribution, and consumption, and to its characteristic linguistic features. One the
other hand the term text type, is normally reserved for a description of discourse type based on
text-internal features, without any reference to social practices (see the table p.434). Related to the
discourse type is also important the notion of style. It can be describable as a combination of three
components:
1. tenor (the relationship between participants).
2. mode (what we call medium).
3. rhetorical mode (the overall communicative function of the text).
We can also consider style as the set of characteristics linguistic features that distinguish one textual
entities from another.

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Sublanguage  is a rather special discourse type, in that it constitutes a very restricted variety of
language.
The main defining of sublanguage is that it reaches what we call closure (i.e., an absence of new
words or structures). – a specialized language with a specific group or context.
23.3.3 Interdiscursivity
Interdiscursivity  a mix of discourse type; for example, a magazine advertisement borrows the
physical appearance and their linguistic characteristics from another kind of ‘genre’ (i.e. news
reporting).
British National Corpus  is a very large computer databank of British English, containing
about one hundred million running words of texts and over 4000 individual text samples. It’s
divided into 4 main sections, two written (imaginative texts and informative texts) and two spoken
(conversational speech and task-oriented speech). For each word category, they placed the corpus
sections on a gradient from the one which had the lowest frequency of use of the category to the
one which had the highest frequency. But the material isn’t homogeneous.

CHAPTER 26
Language in Literature: Stylistics

26.1 What is stylistics?

Stylistics  it’s a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts,
especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called literary linguistics, stylistics focuses
on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to provide variety and distinctness to
someone’s writing. -Most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal features of texts for their
own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text; or
in order to relate literary effects to linguistic ‘causes’ where these are felt to be relevant.
26.2 Style and meaning, choice, foregrounding and appropriateness
Style and meaning are not exclusively linguistic phenomena, they’re important for non-linguistic
activity too, and we can’t have style or meaning unless we can choose what we say and how we
say it. Styles thus depends on consistent particular choices. For example, different singers will sing
the same song in typically different ways and so have different singing styles. Some people seem to
use swear words in practically every sentence and so this becomes part of their speech style.
Choosing particular ways of saying something also makes for differences in meaning, for
example by choosing different synonyms to refer the same object.
26.2.2 Unusual choices and their effects: deviation, parallelism, foregrounding and
appropriateness
If something, it’s highly noticeable or foregrounding it also becomes highly interpretable. For
example, if we alternate one sentence at a time between English and Chinese, we note that it
produces a ‘deviant effect’.
The general point is that deviation produces the psychological effect of foregrounding for the
observer, which in turn induces a felt need to interpret the deviant behaviour or language
involved. Another way in which the psychological effect of foregrounding can be achieved is
trough parallelistic behaviour. Example of kimono: today in Japan most people do not wear
kimonos anymore, for this seeing someone wear it, it’s statistically deviant. In a family both parents
and the son and the daughter wear kimono although the difference between female kimono and
male kimono. So, the kimono-wearing behaviours of the man and his son paralleled one another, as
did that of the woman and her daughter. The behaviour of the male pair was also paralleled to that
of the female pair. The same thing happens in linguistic behaviour, as can be seen in the way that
members of the same social group talk in similar ways, using similar grammar, pronunciation,
lexical choice and discoursal behaviour. Many specific texts use parallelism to catch our attention

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and help us remember it (for example advertisements and poetry that uses phonetic parallelism to
memorize it).
Furthermore, we can choose to make our linguistic and non-linguistic choices appropriate to
something else. For example, formal occasions often lead people to dress more formally than
normal and also to speak or to write more formally, and so appropriately, than normal. So, an over-
chatty style would be inappropriate for an essay or an academic book. But this idea of
appropriateness actually goes against an important general characteristic of language, which is
often referred to as the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. There are a small set of words in each
language which are compositionally appropriate to what they refer to, for example in words which
are described as onomatopoeic (the phonetic composition of the word matches fairly closely the
sound characteristics of the sound they refer to in the world). This kind of ‘form to meaning’
appropriateness is often referred to as iconicity.

Register, Genre, and Style

Chapter 1
Text varieties in your daily life
We have to make a distinction between spoken language and written language. For most people,
conversation is the most common type of spoken language (examples: television show,
commercials, radio, classroom lectures, political speech etc.). Written language also plays an
important role in daily life for many people, for example students produce many kinds of writings,
and many people read more than they write or listen (newspapers, editorials, novels, e-mail
messages, blogs, letters, text messages etc.).
We can see that any kind of text has its own characteristics linguistic features. We use the terms
register, genre, and style to refer to three different perspectives on text varieties. Register
perspective: combines an analysis of linguistic characteristics that are common in a text variety
with analysis of the situation of use of the variety. Linguistic features: for example pronouns and
verbs are functional and particular features are commonly used in association with the
communicative purposes and situational context of texts.
Genre perspective: it’s similar to the register perspective, but it includes description of the
purposes and situational context of a text variety, but its linguistic analysis contrasts with register
perspective by focusing on the conventional structures used to construct a complete text within the
variety, for example, the conventional way in which a letter begins and ends. Style perspective: is
similar to the register perspective in its linguistic forms, analysing the use of core linguistic features
that are distributed throughout text samples from a variety. The key difference is that the use of
these features is not functionally motivated by the situational context; rather, style features reflect
aesthetic preferences associated with particular authors or historical periods.
Why is it important to analyse text varieties?
As a native speaker of a language, we acquired many text varieties without explicitly studying
them. However, many other varieties are usually learned with explicit instruction. For example if
you are training for a job as a journalist, you will practice writing the language of newspaper
articles. Since the childhood we were taught to read books of many different types (also fictional
stories, historical accounts of past events etc.) and to recognize and interpret the differences among
them. Textual tasks become more specific as a student progresses through school and when we
study at university we learn specific linguistic structures and patterns of a specific field. The task of
learning register/genre differences is even more challenging for a non-native speaker of a language
and register, genre and style are fundamentally important for any student with a primary interest in
language.
Texts, varieties, register and dialects
We can talk about variability because people use different linguistic forms on different occasions,
and different speaker of a language will say the same thing in different ways. Most of this linguistic

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variation is highly semantic. Speaker of a language make choices in pronunciation, morphology,
word choice, and grammar depending on non-linguistic factors that include the speaker’s purpose
in communications, the relationship between speaker and hearer, the production circumstances and
the social characteristics of the speaker. At the highest level, linguistic variation is realized as the
different languages and at the lowest level it’s realized as the differences between one speaker
compared to another speaker.
We use the term text to refer the natural language used for communication, whether it’s realized
in speech or writing. We make a distinction between a complete text and a text excerpt.
Complete text: is an instance of extended discourse that has a clear start and finish, such a research
article.
Text excerpt: segments of discourse from a larger complete text. We can consider texts at a
different levels of generality. A chapter of a book might be considered as a complete text, but the
entire book might also be considered as a complete text. So the boundaries of a complete text are
not always clear-cut, especially in speech. Texts can be described according to their contexts,
considering the characteristics of the people who produce the texts and the characteristics of the
situations and communicative purposes associated with the texts. The general term variety is used
for a category of texts that share some social or situational characteristics. Thus, variety can be
associated with different groups of speaker that refer to dialects.
Register analysis: situation, linguistic features, functions
Generally, register is a variety associated with a particular situation of use and the description of it
covers three major components: situational context, linguistic features, functional relationships
between the first two components. Register is described for their typical lexical and grammatical
characteristics: their linguistic features. But we can describe them for their situational contexts,
for example whether they’re produced in speech or writing. Linguistic features are always
functional when considered from a register perspective, and they tend to occur in a register because
they’re well suited to the purposes and situational context of the register. Registers can be identified
and described based on analysis of complete texts or a collection of text excerpts because the
linguistic component of a register analysis requires identification of the pervasive linguistic features
in the variety. Situational varieties can also be described by analysing language features that
characterize complete texts.
Genre features are not pervasive, rather, they might occur only one time in a complete text, often
at the beginning or ending boundary. They are also often conventional rather than functional.
Example of the register analysis process:
1. it’s important to note the situational characteristics of conversation that distinguish it from
other registers (example of the face-to-face conversation).
2. the second step is to describe the typical (pervasive) linguistic features of conversation. This
requires consideration of multiple texts from the target register, to discover the linguistic features
that are frequent across texts. Linguistic features that are more common in conversation than in
many other register: first person pronouns, second person pronouns and questions.
3. The third step is to interpret the relationship between situational characteristics and pervasive
linguistic features in functional terms.
In a conversation often the participants discuss their own thoughts, attitudes and action with the
first person pronouns; they use second person pronouns to address each other; questions are used as
part of interaction with each other, often incorporating the use of first and second pronouns.
The description of a register has three major components: situational/communicative description;
description of pervasive linguistic features; analysis of the functional associations between
linguistic forms and situational contexts.
The situational characteristics of register are more basic than the linguistic features
Registers differ in both their situational and linguistic characteristics, however, the situational
characteristics are more basic. In contrasts, the linguistic differences among registers can be derived
from situational differences, because linguistic features are functional. For example you find

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yourself in a conversational situation, and because of that you start to produce language with the
linguistic features that are appropriate for a conversation.
Register differ in their characteristic distributions of pervasive linguistic features, not the
single occurrence of an individual feature
Very few registers can be identified by unique lexical or grammatical features. Instead, to carry
out the linguistic analysis of a register, you must consider the extent to which linguistic features are
used, in order to identify the linguistic features that are pervasive and especially common in the
target register. For example the relative distribution of nouns and pronouns differs greatly between
conversation and newspaper writing. The linguistic analysis of register is based on such differences
in the relative distribution of linguistic features, which are especially common and pervasive in
some registers but comparatively rare in others.
Register analysis requires both situational and linguistic analysis, often applied cyclically
In a register analysis, both the situational components and the linguistic features are explicitly
described. The functional interpretation is based on comparison of situational and linguistic
analysis. Initial analysis of the situational characteristics can be important for selecting
appropriate text samples to include in a study.
But often in a register analysis you will find that certain linguistic features will occur more
frequently or rarely than you expected. These unexpected linguistic patterns will often require an
re-asses of the situational characteristics of the register. The process of register analysis is often
iterative.
Register variation has a functional basis
The linguistic differences among registers are not arbitrary. Register analysis always includes
description of the situational context and interpretation of why particular linguistic features
commonly occur in that context. The functional associations between linguistic patterns and
situational factors are the heart of studying register variation.
Registers can be identified on different level of specificity
A register can be extremely general, like textbooks. But even every type of textbooks can be
identified as a register. So, there’s no one correct level of which to identify a register and they
might be different in their level of generality. As a register category becomes more specific, it’s
possible to identify its situational and linguistic characteristics more precisely. For this registers can
be studied on many different level of specificity.
Register analyses must be based on representative sample of texts
Because a register analysis seeks to characterize a variety of language, it must be based on analysis
of a sample of texts selected to represent the register as fully as possible. You cannot generalize to
a register from an analysis with a small number of texts, unless you have supporting evidence from
larger-scales studies.
Register versus dialects
We can distinguish two main kind of dialects in linguistics: geographic dialects that are varieties
associated with speakers living in a particular location; social dialects that are varieties associated
with speakers belonging to a given demographic group. When dialects are studied, analysts usually
focus on linguistic features that are not associated with meaning differences. Phonological
differences are often studies such as pronunciation; this phonological variation results in no
meaning differences. Such linguistics differences are not functional. In this regard, the linguistic
variables used in register studies are exactly the opposite form those used in dialect studies: register
variables are functional, as opposed to dialect variables, which are by definition purely
conventional. Linguistic variables in dialects studies consist of a choice between two linguistic
variants. The variable score is a proportion that shows the relative preference for one or the other
variant. Linguistic variables in register studies are the rate of occurrence for a linguistic feature
and a higher rate of occurrence is interpreted as a reflection of a greater need for the functions
associated with that feature.

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Comparing register variation and dialect variation (conversation vs. textbook)
The linguistic differences among registers are more extensive. When we speak, we use different
linguistic features that are functionally motivated and related to purposes and situations, using
different registers. In contrast, dialect differences are largely conventional, expressing a person’s
identity within a social group. Regardless of any dialect differences, speakers using the same
register are doing similar communicative tasks; therefore, in most basic respects the characteristic
language features used in a given situation are similar across speakers from different dialects.
Because in dialect it’s common to find dialect markers that are often high stigmatized, a relatively
rare occurrence of a few features can serve as an important indicator of dialect differences. In the
two examples the texts is a conversation; both are personal and directly interactive. These
characteristics are tied to conversation as a register and are thus not affected by dialect
differences. The contextual characteristics shared by these two conversations have important
linguistic correlates, and as a result the conversations are very similar linguistically. Both have
numerous contracted or reduced forms.
The situational characteristics of a textbook are very different from those of the conversation.
The primary purpose is to present information about system analysis, as opposed to the
(inter)personal purposes of conversational participants. The sentences of the textbook are
grammatically complete, and often they are quite long and complex. It’s common to find passive
constructions and complex noun phrase constructions. The extensive linguistic differences between
this textbook and the conversations reflect the fundamental importance of a register, associated with
contextual differences in production circumstances, purpose, interactiveness and so on. In dialect
there are of course differences in pronunciation and word choice associated with different dialects,
and there are even occasional grammatical differences. But these differences are minor when
compared to the major linguistic differences among different register, associated with different
situations of use.
Register, genre and style perspective in this book
We know that the same text can be analysed from register, genre and style perspectives. The three
perspectives differ in four major ways:
1. The texts consider for the analysis;
2. The linguistic characteristics considered for the analysis;
3. The distribution of those linguistic characteristics;
4. The interpretation of linguistic differences;
In the genre perspective, the focus is on the linguistic characteristics that are used to structure
complete texts, while in both register and style perspectives, the focus is on the pervasive
linguistic characteristics of representative text excerpts from the variety. The register
perspective characterizes the typical linguistic features of texts varieties, and connects those
features functionally to the situational context of the variety. The analysis can be based on the
sample of text excerpts. These features serve a crucial role in how texts from a particular variety
are constructed. For this, genre studies must be based in analysis of complete texts from the
variety. These language features are conventionally associated with the genre: they conform to the
culturally expected way of constructing texts belonging to the variety (examples p.17). The genre
perspective often focuses on rhetorical organization of texts from a variety, especially the
rhetorical conventions of written varieties. The register and genre perspectives differ in the extent
to which they can be applied. Complete texts are required to identify the linguistic characteristics
associated with the genre perspective. Text excerpts are not adequate for genre analysis because
they don’t represent the linguistic conventions that define the genre. In contrast, any text sample can
be analysed from a register perspective, considering the typical linguistic features associated with
the situational context. These linguistic features occur throughout text from a register, and so
complete texts are not required to analyse register characteristics. Complete texts that are analysed
from a genre perspective can also be analysed from a register perspective.

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The style perspective is similar to the register perspective in that it considers the typical linguistic
features associated with a collection of text samples from a variety. The two perspectives differ in
their interpretation, that is in underlying reasons for the observed linguistic patterns. The
systematic linguistic patterns associated with the register perspective exist because linguistic
variation is functional. In contrast, the linguistic patterns associated with style are not functional. A
speaker or an author often has attitudes about what constitutes “good style” resulting in the
manipulation of language for aesthetic purposes.
Styles are normally distinguished for the texts within a register or genre. The most common
application of this concept is to describe systematic variation within the register/genre of fiction.
A similar notion of style has been used to study variation within the register conversation, where
each subculture can be described as having a distinctive communicative style or conversational
style. Particular fictional styles are often associated with individual authors. But styles can be also
associated with different groups of authors or different historical periods. The key point is that
these differences are not functional. The same text or varieties can be considered from register,
genre and style perspectives.
Genre and style in literary studies
The concept of literary genre: varieties of literature that employ different textual conventions.
This use of the term genre is similar to our use in the present book because of the emphasis on
textual conventions. The most obvious difference is probably the physical layout on the page. By
convention, fictional prose is presented as paragraphs. Fictional prose also normally employs
complete sentences and standard sentence punctuation. Drama has different conventions:
conversational dialogue; a format that first identifies who the speaker is. As a result, a dramatic
text also includes language that gives instructions for the performance, identifying events that occur
during a conversation or describing the manner of speaking than an actor should adopt. Poetry
differs from both drama and prose in that physical arrangement of text on the page is part of the
creative effect. Poetry can employ complete sentences, but the arrangement of lines on the page is
more important. Meaning relationships in poetry are often constructed from the physical
juxtaposition of words and lines, rather through the use of complete sentences. There is extensive
linguistic variation among texts within a literary genre, and this is where the style perspective
becomes important, to describe the characteristic discourse associated with different authors or time
periods reflecting different aesthetic preferences. Styles can be described in terms of the frequent
and pervasive linguistic features used in different kinds of discourse. Literary styles can be
studied using the same analytical techniques as registers. However, the underlying causes of style
variation are related to aesthetic preferences and attitudes about language.
Register, genre and style in previous research
There’s no general consensus concerning the use of register and related terms as genre and style.
Register and genre have both been used to refer to varieties associated with particular situations
of use and particular communicative purposes.
Register/genre variation as a linguistic universal
All cultures use language for different communicative purposes in different situations.
Register variation: focuses on the pervasive patterns of linguistic variation across all situations, in
association with the functions served by linguistic features; genre variation: focuses on the
conventional ways in which complete texts of different types are structured. Taken together ,
register/genre variation is a fundamental aspect of human language. All cultures and languages
have an array of registers/genres, and all humans control a range of registers/genres.
Given the ubiquity of register/genre variation, an understanding of how linguistic features are used
in patterned ways across text varieties is of central importance for both the description of particular
languages and the development of cross-linguistic theories of language use. Although all societies
and languages have a number of registers/genres, they do not necessarily have equivalent sets. No
individual speaker/writer can control the full set of text varieties found in the culture. Register/genre
variation is universal because all cultures use language in different situations for different

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communicative purposes. We regard the register perspective as the most important: because
linguistic features are functional, they are used to greater and lesser extents in different
situations, and thus any text sample of any type can be described from the register perspective.

Chapter 5
Written registers, genres, and styles
Situational characteristics of newspaper writing and academic prose
One notable similarity for newspaper writing and academic prose is that a number of the
characteristics cannot be specified. That is, since these are general written registers, many
situational characteristics vary among the subregisters within the more general category. Although
both research articles and textbooks are academic prose, they have different specific purposes
and embody different sets of relationships between writer and reader (example: research articles
and textbook). In addition some situational characteristics vary by the individual situation.
Situational characteristics can be specified for these two general registers:
1. Both newspaper and academic prose conform to the prototypical production and comprehension
circumstances of writing.
2. There isn’t a direct connection between the reader and the writer. They haven’t personal
relationship, no direct interaction, and do not share the same setting.
3. Communicative purposes of the registers: both have a generally informational purpose. The
content is generally factual, not imaginative.
The two general registers have some clear situational differences, especially in communicative
purposes. Newspaper news reports recount events, describing what happened, rather than offering
interpretations. All academic writing is expected to go further than just narrating events. It needs to
explain and interpret the information that is presented. The two registers also differ in their topic
areas: although both have variation in specific topics, newspapers are always focused on current
newsworthy events; for academic writing it’s impossible to specify a topical focus.
Linguistic features in newspaper writing and academic prose
Writing vs. conversation
Nominal features are one of the most obvious ways in which these two written registers differ
from
conversation. All of the features having to do with noun phrases (nouns, premodifiers of nouns,
postmodifiers of nouns) are much more commons in the written registers. In contrast, personal
pronouns and most verb phrase features are more common in conversation than the written
registers.
Examples: the sentences are long in these text excerpts, often containing only one infinitive verb
but many nouns, resulting in a much higher frequency of nouns than verbs. For example the first
sentence in the textbook has one main verb and five nouns. Although the newspaper article starts
with higher frequency of verbs, and there’s a sentence with only one verb in the main clause and
one verb in the relative clause, but seven nouns. Further, nouns tend to be modified by adjectives
and propositional phrases in these texts, so that the referents are very specific. It’s easy to see how
these features relate to the differences in purpose, production/comprehension circumstances and
physical settings of informational writing versus conversation.
Newspaper and academic prose have a general purpose of informing and there is plenty of time
for planning, revising and editing the language. These specific noun phrases are useful for
identifying the precise concepts that will be covered in the textbook. In the newspaper article, the
noun phrases name a variety of objects that are associated with the general topic.
Conversation on the other hand, is produced and processed in real time, by people who are face-
to-face, sharing personal information and developing a personal relationship. Shorter noun
phrases result from both the communicative focus (on you and I) and the fact that participants are
together in the same place and time. Several other linguistic features are tied to the

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communicative purpose and production circumstances of the written vs. spoken registers. These
written registers have a high “type-token ratio”: a measure of how many different words are used
in a text. This characteristic reflects the precision of noun phrases with their variety of modifiers,
the need to be precise about the reference of noun phrases and the variety of topic raised. In sum,
there are major linguistic differences between conversation and informational writing associated
with the major situational differences between these general registers.
Comparison of newspaper writing and academic prose
Although newspaper writing and academic prose appear quite similar to each other when
compared to conversation, there are also other differences between them, and these differences
relate to their differences in situational characteristics: purposes and topics.
Newspaper focuses more on current newsworthy events and has more emphasis on simple
reporting; academic prose is always expected to analyze, explain and not just report. Certain
linguistic features clearly relate to these differences: present vs. past tense verb, types of
circumstances adverbial and linking adverbials. Academic prose purposes uses far more present
tense verbs than past tense verbs, while in newspaper the frequency of the two tenses is about the
same. Speaking about circumstances adverbials, newspaper have more time adverbials than
other adverbials, but also use place and process adverbials. In academic prose neither place nor
time adverbials are common. In newspaper the time adverbials are important because readers are
expected to be reading the article the same day that the paper was published. In a research article
(with the same content of the newspaper) all the information is in the present tense, informing
readers of the most current knowledge about the object. The discussion of general patterns and
concepts in academic prose is also connected with another linguistic difference from newspapers:
academic prose tends to have a higher frequency of nominalizations. If we read an academic
prose we note that if the ideas aren’t expressed with a nominalizations, the focus of the discourse
would change. Since academic prose is expected to develop arguments rather than to simply
reports events, linking adverbials are more common. Data isn’t reported, rather we need to made
an interpretation and reach a conclusion.
Another difference between the two written registers is the devices used to identify sources
information.
More commonly, newspaper articles rely on less precise attribution, using the phrase according
to.
Information in newspaper articles can be attributed to a variety of sources. Finally, the dense use of
passiveverbs in academic prose is so stigmatized that’s used merely to sound objective and to
distance the practice of science from human agents. In many cases where passives are used, the
subject of an active voice verb would just be vague. Furthermore, passive voice allows concepts and
objects (rather than people) to be grammatical subject of the sentence, making the discourse topic
clear. This is not just important for research articles. With the passive its clearer for readers to skim
quickly and see the main points by looking at the subjects of each sentence. In many cases the agent
is obscured.
Variation within the general registers
There are several of subregisters within each of these two general written registers (for example in
newspaper: sports reports, editorials, letter to the editor, feedback and so on). These subregisters
differ in their particular communicative purposes and for this we can say that would be also
corresponding linguistic differences.
News reports and newspaper editorials
Editorials have the specific purpose of stating an opinion and arguing for it. Examples: In all of
these editorials, opinions are clearly stated, evaluating what happened and recommending what
should happen. Specific linguistic features are used for these functions: frequent modals (should),
often directive, telling people the best behaviour to follow. Other modals are used to identify
preferred actions. Editorials also tend to have a high concentration of conditionals to discuss
hypotheticals predicting events if particular actions are or are not followed.

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News report example: the news report simply narrates the event. There are no opinions, no
suggestions for next steps, no discussion of hypothetical situations or possibilities for the future.
Correspondingly, modals and conditionals are absent.
Research articles vs. textbooks
Academic prose encompasses many different kinds of publications; research articles and
textbooks are two of these. The comparison of these two subregisters has interesting implications in
a university educational context. The most obvious situational differences between research
articles and textbooks concern their participants and communicative purposes.
Research articles are usually written by professionals who are experts in a specific field, and they
are written for other experienced professionals. In contrast, textbooks are written by experts for
novices in field. Although both of these registers have a general purpose of conveying information,
their specific purposes vary. Research articles must contribute new knowledge to the field and
convince other experts that this knowledge has scientific merit; textbooks generally seek to inform
students of knowledge that is already established in a field of study.
Several linguistic features correspond to the situational differences between textbooks and
professional research articles. One important linguistic difference between them is the use of
complex noun phrases. Although they both use complex noun phrases, they differ in their
reliance on these structures. In the research article’s example a specific research topic is discussed
and complex noun phrases are used to facilitate precise identification of the referents. Thus, many
noun modifiers are used, including attributive adjectives, premodifying nouns and prepositional
phrases. In the textbook passage, the description is more general, with fewer complex noun
phrases. There are some simple statements with simple noun phrases.
More description is given for many of the referents, rather than just naming them. The greater
emphasis on explanation and exemplification of a concept thus corresponds to a lower density of
complex noun phrases. Complex noun phrases contain more information and more precise
technical information, and are more difficult to understand or produce; the noun phrases in a
research article cover a very limited technical topic. Another linguistic difference is the use of
passives: textbooks tend to use passive voice less often than research articles. The greater use of
active voice in textbooks results in more passages with an action-oriented narrative. In contrast,
research articles often use passive voice to focus on objects rather than people. Overall, there’s less
action in research articles, with more emphasis on the significance and interpretation of events or
documents. This different emphasis is required as researchers argue the importance of their
research, while the more action-oriented textbooks are likely to be more engaging for student
readers.
More specific subregisters: research article sections
Subregisters can have even more specialized registers within them. For example the section of
scientific research articles that it’s divided in different sections which have different purposes:
 Introduction: describes what is known so far about this area of research and what additional
information this study will add;
 Methods: reports the data, techniques, and procedures used in the study;
 Results: reports the findings of the analysis;
 Discussion: interprets the results and argues what their significance is, referring back to
what was previously known about this area of research.
Each of the four sections contributes to an article’s overall purpose of contributing new
information to the field and convincing readers that this new information is significant and
trustworthy. But since each section has different purposes, each section also has its own
characteristic linguistic features. Often they’re written with the use of the present tense that fits
the function of telling the current state of knowledge, especially in the introduction. In contrast, the
methods section narrates specific past events and so the verbs are all in the past tense. In general
passives are much more frequent in methods sections than in the other sections, because the point
it’s not a person but all the process explained. Passive voice is also used in the discussion section

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that makes statements that summarize the evidence in the study and argue for its scientific
significance.

Research articles from genre perspective

Since research articles have a conventionalized structure, it’s possible to analyze them from a genre
perspective as well as a register perspective. An example is the experimental research articles
that have the same overall organization: beginning with an abstract followed by introduction,
methods, results and discussion. Each of these components of the text has its own typical
communicative goals. Despite their conventional organization, however, research articles have few
genre markers. The labels of each section can be considered genre markers, since they occur at
predictable points in the article structure and are used once. Beyond that, the language used in the
different sections needs to be described from a register perspective.
There’s another more specialized way in which research articles have been analyzed from a genre
perspective: with respect to the conventional sequence of rhetorical moves found within a section
from a research article:
1. Move 1: establish a territory;
2. Move 2: establish a niche;
3. Move 3: occupy the niche;
In this case, even the introduction of a research article can be regarded as a well-defined genre with
a conventional structure for how the “text” should begin and end.
Variation in fiction due to style
Fictional texts can be analyzed linguistically. A linguistic analysis makes clear how complex
fiction is and how adept authors are at manipulating language for different purposes and effect.
Fiction also provides another perspective on how a general register can vary. The linguistic
variations comes not from specialized subregisters, but from deliberated choices by the authors
depending on what they want to convey a story. So, analysis of fiction must cover characteristics
of the imaginary world and choices of style. We can say that fiction is one of the most
complicated registers. Fiction, like newspaper, it’s written for a large and general audience, who has
little personal knowledge about the author and also does not share a high level of
professional/specialist knowledge with the author; there’s no normally interaction between author
and reader. The relevant situational context is the fictional word that it’s been created in the text
itself.
One of the most important factors that influences fictional style is the perspective that the author
chooses for narrating a story: first person perspective, as if the author were one of the main
characters; third person perspective, as is the author were an outside observer of the events. This
distinction has immediate linguistic consequences. First person fiction has frequent occurrences of
the pronoun I, and this usually reports the sensual perceptions, thoughts and attitudes of the
author; this results in frequent complement clause constructions (that-clause and to-clause), where
the verb or adjective in the main clause express a “personal stance” about the information in the
complement clause (example p.133 of that and to-clauses).
In contrast a third person narrative is told from the point of view of an external observer. In this
case the narrator can be a normal observer, who can observe only the physical phenomena that any
of us could observe, or a super-human observer, who is aware of the inner thoughts and feelings of
characters. In the former case, the descriptions of events is relatively “objective”, sometimes with
the use of frequent third person pronouns, past tense, communication verbs and so on.
Different examples
An omniscient third person narrator is able to describe the inner thoughts and feelings of
characters; this includes numerous stance expressions, because the narrator is privy to the inner
attitudes and feelings of characters. Is frequent mental verbs controlling complement clauses.
A second major parameter of variation among fictional stories is the extent to which the author
decides to report the dialogue characters that can be more than the narrative prose. This style of

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fiction employs many of the grammatical features that are common in face-to-face conversation,
such as second person pronouns, present tense verbs, questions, contractions and ellipsis.
Other fictional style incorporate little dialogue. For example, a first person narrative can simply
report past events and places as observed by the main character, but omit reports of conversational
interactions. There’s a high frequency of first and third person pronouns, past tense verbs,
adverbials of time, markers of personal stance and so on.
The same distinction in dialogue use is found in third person narratives. For example we can
focus mostly on the inner thoughts and feelings of the main character, together with a narration of
past events as perceived by that character. It can occur very little dialogue reported in this style of
fiction and thus fewfeatures typical of face-to-face conversation.
We can also have a style with both conversational features and narrative features. For example
there are frequent present tense verbs, modal verbs, contractions, ellipsis and questions (typical of
conversation), as well as frequent past tense verbs and third person pronouns, typical of prose
narration. An alternative style to all those described above is to narrate the story as though it’s
being told orally or in a personal letter to a specific addressee. In this case, there is little direct
report dialogue, but there are numerous linguistic features of conversations, because the story is
written as if it were an oral telling of the personal events, feelings and attitudes of the narrator. First
person pronouns are common since the story is told from the perspective of a first person narrator.
The addressee is directly addressed as “you”. The narrator tells us his own personal feelings and
attitudes, using frequent modal verbs, complement clause constructions, stance adverbials and so
on. However the entire passage is written in past tense, because the focus is on the report of past
events.
A final parameter of variation among fictional novel is whether he story is told as a narration of
past events, or as a description of events as they occur at the time of telling. The more common
style is to narrate past events, however, in a few cases, th story is written as if the narrator is
describing the events in real time. This style of discourse results in frequent features like present
tense verbs and time adverbials, describing events that are actually in progress. This stylistic choice
helps to create a greater sense of immediacy and involvement than in typical past tense narratives.

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