Register

[Guild of English Students]

In linguistic analysis, different styles of language are technically
called register. Register refers to properties within a language
variety that associate that language with a given situation. This is
distinct from, say, professional terminology that might only be found,
for example, in a legal document or medical journal. The
linguistMichael Halliday defines register by emphasising its semantic
patterns and context. For Halliday, register is determined by what is
taking place, who is taking part and what part the language is
playing.

In Context and Language, Helen Leckie-Tarry suggests that Halliday’s
theory of register aims to propose relationships between language
function, determined by situational or social factors, and language
form.

The linguist William Downes makes the point that the principal
characteristic of register, no matter how peculiar or diverse, is that
it is obvious and immediately recognizable.

Halliday places great emphasis on the social context of register and
distinguishes register from dialect, which is a variety according to
user, in the sense that each speaker uses one variety and uses it all
the time, and not, as is register, a variety according to use, in the
sense that each speaker has a range of varieties and chooses between
them at different times.

For example,Cockney is a dialect of English that relates to a
particular region of the United Kingdom, however, Cockney rhyming
slang bears a relationship between its variety and the situation in
which it appears, i.e. the ironic definitions of the parlance within
the distinctive tones of the East-End London patois. Subsequently,
register is associated with language situation and not geographic
location.