Talk:Register (sociolinguistics)

Isn't there another meaning of "register" in linguistics, having to do with tone languages? --Angr/undefined 09:15, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes you are right. Tone languages are sometimes divided into "register" tone languages, (the pitch is steady) and "contour" tone languages (fluctuating pitch). The term 'register language' is also used to indicate a language where vowel phonation is combined with tone in a single phonological system. Burmese and Cambodian, for example, are register languages.


 * So I propose moving this page to Register (language variety) and making Register (linguistics) into a disambiguation page — or even seperating Register (language style) from register as variety. Unfortunately, that means going through the "what links here" and changing a bunch of links. Any takers? ntennis 00:47, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

G.B. Shaw quotation
I found this sentence in a Hungarian source (my own translation into English):


 * G.B. Shaw once said that he spoke “English” in three different languages: he uses one for writing his plays, he uses the other when arranging official functions of life, and he uses the third with his intimate friends; these three languages are quite dissimilar to each other.

Could you possibly help me find the original English quotation by Shaw himself? (Maybe it's related to the topic of this article.)

Adam78 14:38, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Discuss fully the Concept of Field in Registers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.78.59.66 (talk) 16:26, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Question
Hello. Does someone know much about the cross-linguistic variation of register usage? I'm a native Hebrew speaker, and I have noticed that "contractions" seem to be associated with more formal registers than "full" forms, which is strikingly contradictory with English usage- though this might have to do with these "contractions" preserving synthetic aspects of Biblical Hebrew which are being lost in Modern Standard Hebrew, which is increasingly analytic. (As an example, "anu" is the formal variant of "anakhnu", the first person plural pronoun) This is all mere anecdote, unfit for encyclopedic formats. I was mostly wondering if others thought this might be a good research thread to expand the article, in which case I will try to find some scholarly works on the subject. JonathanHopeThisIsUnique (talk) 21:24, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Code switching
This topic is intimately connected to code switching, but doesn't refer to that article or topic, and as such gives undue weight to a particular type of register use.

Article currently reads As with other types of language variation, there tends to be a spectrum of registers rather than a discrete set of obviously distinct varieties—numerous registers can be identified, with no clear boundaries between them. That's true but misleading and again undue weight (and unsourced). When code switching is involved, either by a single user or by a community, the registers tend to be quite distinct. Andrewa (talk) 20:42, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Hello, Andrewa. I agree with you that, like many Wikipedia articles, this one is incomplete. Topics such as code switching, style (sociolinguistics), dialect, and others are relevant to & perhaps overlapping register. (I think that those Wikipedia articles are currently linked from this one, but some only in the 'See also' section.) That said, I don't think I've ever seen a charge of 'undue weight' used in this way. Such charges usually are leveled at articles that give more attention to one theory or point of view than to other competing views, or that elevate a fringe theory alongside widely accepted views on the topic. In any case, expansion of the article is warranted and most welcome.


 * By the way, the specific sentence you quote is in the lead section, which may explain why you didn't see a source cited for it. (Per MOS:CITELEAD, "Because the lead will usually repeat information that is in the body, editors should balance the desire to avoid redundant citations in the lead with the desire to aid readers in locating sources for challengeable material.") If you think the assertion is controversial or likely to be challenged, then by all means cite a source if you know of one, or add a citation needed tag. Cnilep (talk) 02:29, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Register vs Style
The page on Style says 'register' and 'style' are sometimes considered interchangeable. This page literally uses the word 'style' to refer to registers. I propose that either: - these pages should be merged; or - the language should be cleaned up so as to retain their distinctness. In the second case, it would be beneficial to explain the difference between them on one or both pages. I have no idea what the difference might be; in my education, we referred only to register. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Apollo reactor (talk • contribs) 17:11, 8 November 2020 (UTC)