Different Style, Diffrent Register - 2883 Words

Written by: Mukhlash Abrar Different Style, Different Register? Essay question: Does style influence register or register influence style? Language is an interesting topic to discuss. Basically, Language is defined as a system of communication by sound, i.e., through the organs of speech and hearing, among human beings of certain group or community, using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meaning.[1] It means people use language to communicate and socialize among them. Language can be studied internally or externally. Internal discussion of language encompasses the structure of language such as phonological, morphological and syntactic structures. External discussion of language, on the other hand, discusses about†¦show more content†¦The notion of register presents the interface between the use of specific code and a particular configuration of situational variables. One way of pinpointing a register is to identify a communicative event along the dimensions.[11] Halliday distinguishes three general types of dimension: ‘field’, ‘mode’ and ‘tenor’.[12] T he three dimensions will be discusses point by point. The first point of dimensions is ‘field’. Field is social setting and purpose of the interaction.[13] Moreover, Hudson stated field is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter the communication.[14] From the two opinions, it is clear that ‘field’ deals with the purpose of interaction. In the case of an academic article in a professional journal, for example, the field should be the subject matter of the article, and the purpose in publishing it would be to spread the argument and ideas among academic colleagues.[15] The second point is ‘tenor’. Tenor depends on the relations between participants.[16] In addition, Stockwell mentioned that tenor refers to the relationship between the participants in the event.[17] For example, when a student is talking to a teacher, an offender to a police officer, an office worker to a superior, or a