Language Registers: 1. Static Register

Language Registers
There are five language registers or styles. Each level has an appropriate use that is
determined by differing situations. It would certainly be inappropriate to use language and
vocabulary reserve for a boyfriend or girlfriend when speaking in the classroom. Thus the
appropriate language register depends upon the audience (who), the topic (what), purpose
(why) and location (where).

You must control the use of language registers in order to enjoy success in every aspect and
situation you encounter.

1. Static Register
This style of communications RARELY or NEVER changes. It is “frozen” in time and
content. e.g. the Pledge of Allegiance, the Lord’s Prayer, the Preamble to the US
Constitution, the Alma Mater, a bibliographic reference, laws .

2. Formal Register
This language is used in formal settings and is one-way in nature. This use of language
usually follows a commonly accepted format. It is usually impersonal and formal. Common
formats for this register are speeches. e.g. sermons, rhetorical statements and questions,
speeches, pronouncements made by judges, announcements.

3. Consultative Register
This is a standard form of communications. Users engage in a mutually accepted structure of
communications. It is formal and societal expectations accompany the users of this speech. It
is professional discourse. e.g. when strangers meet, communications between a superior and a
subordinate, doctor & patient, lawyer & client, lawyer & judge, teacher & student, counselor
& client,

4. Casual Register
This is informal language used by peers and friends. Slang, vulgarities and colloquialisms are
normal. This is “group” language. One must be member to engage in this register. e.g.
buddies, teammates, chats and emails, and blogs, and letters to friends.

5. Intimate Register
This communications is private. It is reserved for close family members or intimate people.
e.g. husband & wife, boyfriend & girlfriend, siblings, parent & children.
One can usually transition from one language register to an adjacent one without
encountering repercussions. However, skipping one or more levels is usually considered
inappropriate and even offensive.
Dialect
The word dialect—which contains "lect" within the term—derives from the Greek
words dia- meaning "across, between" and legein "speak." A dialect is a regional or
social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. The
term dialect is often used to characterize a way of speaking that differs from
the standard variety of the language. Sarah Thomason of the Linguistic Society of
America notes:
"All dialects start with the same system, and their partly independent histories leave different parts of
the parent system intact. This gives rise to some of the most persistent myths about language, such as
the claim that the people of Appalachia speak pure Elizabethan English."
Certain dialects have gained negative connotations in the U.S. as well as in other countries. Indeed,
the term dialect prejudice refers to discrimination based on a person's dialect or way of speaking.
Dialect prejudice is a type of linguicism—discrimination based on dialect. In their article "Applied
Social Dialectology," published in "Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of the Science of
Language and Society," Carolyn Temple and Donna Christian observe:
"...dialect prejudice is endemic in public life, widely tolerated, and institutionalized in social
enterprises that affect almost everyone, such as education and the media. There is limited knowledge
about and little regard for linguistic study showing that all varieties of a language display
systematicity and that the elevated social position of standard varieties has no scientific linguistic
basis."
Due to this kind of dialectic prejudice, Suzanne Romaine, in "Language in Society," notes: "Many
linguists now prefer the term variety or lect to avoid the sometimes pejorative connotations that the
term 'dialect' has."
Register
Register is defined as the way a speaker uses language differently in different circumstances. Think
about the words you choose, your tone of voice, even your body language. You probably behave very
differently chatting with a friend than you would at a formal dinner party or during a job interview.
These variations in formality, also called stylistic variation, are known as registers in linguistics.
They are determined by such factors as social occasion, context, purpose, and audience. Registers are
marked by a variety of specialized vocabulary and turns of phrases, colloquialisms, the use of jargon,
and a difference in intonation and pace.
Registers are used in all forms of communication, including written, spoken, and signed. Depending
on grammar, syntax, and tone, the register may be extremely rigid or very intimate. You don't even
need to use an actual word to communicate effectively. A huff of exasperation during a debate or a
grin while signing "hello" speaks volumes.
Jargon
Jargon refers to the specialized language of a professional or occupational group. Such language is
often meaningless to outsiders. American poet David Lehman has described jargon as "the verbal
sleight of hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious
profundity to ideas that, if stated directly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false."
George Packer describes jargon in a similar vein in a 2016 article in the New Yorker magazine:
“Professional jargon—on Wall Street, in humanities departments, in government offices—can be a

fence raised to keep out the uninitiated and permit those within it to persist in the belief that what they
do is too hard, too complex, to be questioned. Jargon acts not only to euphemize but to license, setting
insiders against outsiders and giving the flimsiest notions a scientific aura.”
Pam Fitzpatrick, a senior research director at Gartner, a Stamford, Connecticut-based research and
advisory firm specializing in high tech, writing on LinkedIn, puts it more bluntly:
"Jargon is waste. Wasted breath, wasted energy. It absorbs time and space but does nothing to further
our goal of persuading people to help us solve complex problems."
In other words, jargon is a faux method of creating a sort of dialect that only those on this inside
group can understand. Jargon has social implications similar to dialect prejudice but in reverse: It is a
way of making those who understand this particular variety of language more erudite and learned;
those who are members of the group that understands the particular jargon are considered smart, while
those on the outside are simply not bright enough to comprehend this kind of language.
Types of Lects
In addition to the distinctions discussed previously, different types of lects also echo the types of
language varieties:
Regional dialect: A variety spoken in a particular region.
Sociolect: Also known as a social dialect, a variety of language (or register) used by a socioeconomic
class, a profession, an age group, or any other social group.
Ethnolect: A lect spoken by a specific ethnic group. For example, Ebonics, the vernacular spoken by
some African-Americans, is a type of ethnolect, notes e2f, a language-translation firm.
Idiolect: According to e2f, the language or languages spoken by each individual. For example, if you
are multilingual and can speak in different registers and styles, your idiolect comprises several
languages, each with multiple registers and styles.
In the end, language varieties come down to judgments, often "illogical," that are, according to
Edward Finegan in "Language: Its Structure and Use":
"...imported from outside the realm of language and represent attitudes to particular varieties or to
forms of expression within particular varieties."
The language varieties, or lects, that people speak often serve as the basis for judgment, and even
exclusion, from certain social groups, professions, and business organizations. As you study language
varieties, keep in mind that they are often based on judgments one group is making in regard to
another.

Language Registers: 1. Static Register

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Language Registers

“Professional jargon—on Wall Street, in humanities departments, in government offices—can be a

Regional dialect: A variety spoken in a particular region.

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