Article published In:
English World-WideVol. 39:2 (2018) ► pp.214–242
Register variation in written contact varieties of English
A multidimensional analysis
Previous research suggests there are register differences between native and non-native varieties of English, as well as translated English. This article reports on a multidimensional (MD) analysis of register variation in the published written registers of 16 varieties of English, and tests expectations for register variation in contact varieties evident from existing research. The study finds that the effects of variety and register are largely independent of each other, indicating that overall, registers pattern in similar ways across varieties. register is the strongest factor accounting for variance in the data, but variety also contributes significantly to variation. Non-native varieties before phase four in the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007) and translations draw more extensively on markers of formality than non-native varieties at phase four and native varieties. Contact varieties display fewer involvement features than native varieties. Persuasive strategies and reported speech are variable across varieties, suggesting local stylistic and cultural differences.
Keywords: multidimensional analysis, register, ESL varieties, translation, contact varieties, formality, involvement
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Register and language-contact varieties
- 2.1Register analysis and translation
- 2.2Register analysis and written non-native varieties of English
- 2.3Synthesis: Register and written contact varieties
- 3.Method
- 3.1Corpora
- 3.2Analysis
- 4.Findings
- 4.1Dimensions extracted from the new factor analysis
- a.Dimension 1: Informality in written registers
- b.Dimension 2: Elaborated-involved versus integrated-informational presentation in written registers
- c.Dimension 3: Irrealis versus informational narration in written registers
- d.Dimension 4: Speech reporting or retelling in written registers
- 4.2Varieties and registers across dimensions
- 4.2.1Dimension 1: Informality in written registers
- 4.2.2Dimension 2: Elaborated-involved versus integrated-informational presentation in written registers
- 4.2.3Dimension 3: Irrealis versus informational narration in written registers
- 4.2.4Dimension 4: Speech reporting or retelling in written registers
- 4.1Dimensions extracted from the new factor analysis
- 5.Conclusions
- Notes
-
References
References
Baker, Mona
1993 “Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Applications”. In Mona Baker, Gill Francis, and Elena Tognini-Bonelli, eds. Text and Technology: In Honour of John Sinclair. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 233–250. 
Baker, Wendy, and William G. Eggington
1999 “Bilingual Creativity, Multidimensional Analysis, and World Englishes”. World Englishes 181: 343–357.
Becher, Viktor, Juliane House, and Svenja Kranich
2009 “Convergence and Divergence of Communicative Norms through Language Contact in Translation”. In Kurt Braunmüller, and Juliane House, eds. Convergence and Divergence in Language Contact Situations. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 125–151.
Biber, Douglas
1986 “Spoken and Written Textual Dimensions in English: Resolving the Contradictory Findings”. Language 621: 384–414.
1987 “A Textual Comparison of British and American Writing”. American Speech 621: 99–119.
1988 Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2014 “Using Multi-Dimensional Analysis to Explore Cross-Linguistic Universals of Register Variation”. Languages in Contrast 141: 7–34.
Biber, Douglas, and Jesse Egbert
2016 “Register Variation on the Searchable Web: A Multi-Dimensional Analysis”. Journal of English Linguistics 441: 95–137.
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan
1999 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.
Brezina, Vaclav
Burnham, Kenneth P., and David R. Anderson
2004 “Multimodel Inference: Understanding AIC and BIC in Model Selection”. Sociological Methods and Research 331: 261–304.
Cao, Yan, and Richard Xiao
2013 “A Multi-Dimensional Contrastive Study of English Abstracts by Native and Non-Native Writers”. Corpora 81: 209–234.
Collins, Peter, and Xinyue Yao
2013 “Colloquial Features in World Englishes”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 181: 479–505.
Delaere, Isabelle, and Gert de Sutter
2013 “Applying a Multidimensional, Register-Sensitive Approach to Visualize Normalization in Translated and Non-Translated Dutch”. In Marie-Aude Lefer, and Svetlana Vogeleer, eds. Interference and Normalization in Genre-Controlled Multilingual Corpora. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 43–60.
Deshors, Sandra C.
2014 “A Case for a Unified Treatment of EFL and ESL: A Multifactorial Approach”. English World-Wide 351: 277–305.
Fox, John
2003 “Effect Displays in R for Generalised Linear Models”. Journal of Statistical Software 81: 1–27. [URL] (accessed July 31, 2016).
Gaspari, Frederico, and Silvia Bernardini
2010 “Comparing Non-Native and Translated Language: Monolingual Comparable Corpora with a Twist”. In Richard Xiao, ed. Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 215–234.
Gilquin, Gaëtanelle
2014 “At the Interface of Contact Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition Research: New Englishes and Learner Englishes Compared”. English World-Wide 351: 91–124.
Hansen-Schirra, Sylvia, Stella Neumann, and Erich Steiner
2012 Cross-Linguistic Corpora for the Study of Translations: Insights from the Language Pair English-German. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Hudson, Richard A.
1996 Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hundt, Marianne, and Joybrato Mukherjee
2011 “Introduction: Bridging the Paradigm Gap”. In Joybrato Mukherjee, and Marianne Hundt, eds. Exploring Second-Language Varieties of English and Learner Englishes: Bridging a Paradigm Gap. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1–5.
Kortmann, Bernd, and Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
2009 “World Englishes between Simplification and Complexification”. In Thomas Hoffmann, and Lucia Siebers, eds. World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 265–286.
Kranich, Svenja, Viktor Becher, Steffen Höder, and Juliane House
2011 Multilingual Discourse Production: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kranich, Svenja, Juliane House, and Viktor Becher
2012 “Changing Conventions in English-German Translations of Popular Scientific Texts”. In Kurt Braunmüller, and Christoph Gabriel, eds. Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 315–334.
Kruger, Haidee, and Bertus van Rooy
2012 “Register and the Features of Translated Language”. Across Languages and Cultures 131: 33–65.
2016a “Constrained Language: A Multidimensional Analysis of Translated English and a Non-Native Indigenised Variety of English”. English World-Wide 371: 26–57.
2016b “Syntactic and Pragmatic Transfer Effects in Reported-Speech Constructions in three Contact Varieties of English Influenced by Afrikaans”. Language Sciences 561: 118–131.
2017 “Editorial Practice and the Progressive in Black South African English”. World Englishes 361: 20–41.
Laviosa, Sara
2002 Corpus-Based Translation Studies: Theory, Findings, Applications. New York: Rodopi.
Lee, David Y. W.
2005 Modelling Variation in Spoken and Written Language: The Multi-Dimensional Approach Revisited. London: Routledge.
Leech, Geoffrey, Marianne Hundt, Christian Mair, and Nicholas Smith
2009 Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leitner, Gerhard
1992 “English as a Pluricentric Language”. In Michael Clyne, ed. Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations. Berlin: de Gruyter, 179–237.
Matras, Yaron
2009 Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Neumann, Stella
2012 “Applying Register Analysis to Varieties of English”. In Monika Fludernik, and Bejamin Kohlmann, eds. Proceedings of Anglistentag 2011. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 75–94.
2013 Contrastive Register Variation: A Quantitative Approach to the Comparison of English and German. Berlin: de Gruyter.
2014 “Cross-Linguistic Register Studies: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations”. Languages in Contrast 141: 35–57.
Nini, Andrea
Pym, Anthony
2015 “Translating as Risk Management”. Journal of Pragmatics 851: 67–80.
R Core Team
2015 R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. [URL] (accessed July 31, 2016).
Raftery, Adrian E.
1995 “Bayesian Model Selection in Social Research”. Sociological Methodology 251: 111–163.
Redelinghuys, Karien
2016 “Levelling-Out and Register Variation in the Translations of Experienced and Inexperienced Translators: A Corpus-Based Study”. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 451: 189–220.
Schneider, Edgar
2007 Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2012 “Exploring the Interface between World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition – And Implications for English as a Lingua Franca”. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 11: 57–91.
Sigley, Robert
1997 “Text Categories and where you can Stick them: A Crude Formality Index”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 21: 199–237.
2013 “Assessing Corpus Comparability Using a Formality Index: The Case of the Brown/LOB Clones”. In Shunji Yamazaki, and Robert Sigley, eds. Approaching Language Variation through Corpora. Bern: Peter Lang, 65–113.
Tirkkonen-Condit, Sonja
2002 “Translationese – A Myth or an Empirical Fact? A Study into the Linguistic Identifiability of Translated Language”. Target 141: 207–220.
Toury, Gideon
Van Rooy, Bertus
2008 “A Multidimensional Analysis of Student Writing in Black South African English”. English World-Wide 291: 268–305.
Van Rooy, Bertus, Lize Terblanche, Christoph Haase, and Joseph Schmied
2010 “Register Differentiation in East African English: A Multidimensional Study”. English World-Wide 311: 311–349.
Venables, William N., and Brian D. Ripley
2002 Modern Applied Statistics with S. (4th ed.). New York: Springer.
Xiao, Richard
2009 “Multidimensional Analysis and the Study of World Englishes”. World Englishes 281: 421–450.
Zanettin, Federico
2012 Translation-Driven Corpora. Manchester: St Jerome.
Cited by
Cited by 18 other publications
Bohmann, Axel
2019. Variation in English Worldwide, 
Botha, Werner, Bertus Rooy & Susan Coetzee‐van Rooy
2021. South African Englishes: A contemporary bibliography. World Englishes 40:1 ► pp. 136 ff.
Collins, Peter, Minna Korhonen, Haidee Kotze, Adam Smith & Xinyue Yao
De Sutter, Gert & Marie-Aude Lefer
2020. On the need for a new research agenda for corpus-based translation studies: a multi-methodological, multifactorial and interdisciplinary approach. Perspectives 28:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Dunn, Jonathan
2019. Global Syntactic Variation in Seven Languages: Toward a Computational Dialectology. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 2
Hu, Yukai, Wenjing Zhang & Yike Gao
2022. The Register Variation in Translated Epidemic Prevention Manuals as Emergency Language Services. International Journal of Translation, Interpretation, and Applied Linguistics 4:2 ► pp. 1 ff.
Hundt, Marianne
2019. Corpus-Based Approaches to World Englishes. In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 506 ff.
Ivaska, Ilmari & Silvia Bernardini
2020. Constrained language use in Finnish: A corpus-driven approach. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 43:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
Kajzer-Wietrzny, Marta & Ilmari Ivaska
2020. A Multivariate Approach to Lexical Diversity in Constrained Language. Across Languages and Cultures 21:2 ► pp. 169 ff.
Kirsten, Johanita
2023. Future Time Reference Alternation in Afrikaans as a West-Germanic Language. Languages 8:2 ► pp. 107 ff.
Kranich, Svenja, Elisabeth Hampel & Hanna Bruns
2020. Changes in the modal domain in different varieties of English as potential effects of democratization. Language Sciences 79 ► pp. 101271 ff.
Kruger, Haidee & Adam Smith
2018. Colloquialization versus Densification in Australian English: A Multidimensional Analysis of the Australian Diachronic Hansard Corpus (ADHC). Australian Journal of Linguistics 38:3 ► pp. 293 ff.
Kruger, Haidee, Bertus van Rooy & Adam Smith
2019. Register Change in the British and Australian Hansard (1901-2015). Journal of English Linguistics 47:3 ► pp. 183 ff.
Loureiro-Porto, Lucía
2020. (Un)democratic Epicene Pronouns in Asian Englishes: A Register Approach. Journal of English Linguistics 48:3 ► pp. 282 ff.
Marko, Karoline, Margit Reitbauer & Georg Pickl
Neumann, Stella & Stefan Evert
2021. Chapter 6. A register variation perspective on varieties of English. In Corpus-based Approaches to Register Variation [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 103], ► pp. 143 ff.
Seoane, Elena & Cristina Suárez-Gómez
2020. Elaboration, compression and explicitness across sub-registers of popular and academic writing in Hong Kong
English. Register Studies 2:2 ► pp. 275 ff.
Xu, Cui & Dechao Li
2022. Exploring genre variation and simplification in interpreted language from comparable and intermodal
perspectives. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 68:5 ► pp. 742 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.