Article published in:
Language, Context and Text
Vol. 2:1 (2020) ► pp. 3–21

Trinocular views of register

Approaching register trinocularly

| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Michael Halliday’s argument for the value of ‘trinocular vision’ in linguistic research has particular relevance to the observation, exploration and description of register. Taking each semiotic dimension relevant to the characterisation of register by turn, I begin by discussing Halliday’s proposition. I then proceed, using the metaphor of cartography, to examine register variation via the intersection of three semiotic dimensions: stratification, instantiation and metafunction. I discuss how such examinations enable us to create description maps of register variation. From this basis, I discuss a long-term programme of systematically producing descriptive maps of registers, which I and colleagues have begun. Finally, I suggest that by using such maps we can better understand such important phenomena as aggregates of registers and personal register repertoires.
Keywords: register, dialect, code, rank scale, trinocular vision, stratification, instantiation, registerial cartography, metafunction, systemic functional paradigm
Published online: 29 January 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00019.mat
References

References

Anderson, Jon
2015 Understanding cultural geography: Places and traces (2nd edition). London & New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kay, Mona Domosh, Steve Pile & Nigel Thrift
(eds.) 2003 Handbook of cultural geography. London: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bateman, John A.
2008 Multimodality and genre: A foundation for the systematic analysis of multimodal documents. London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bateman, John A., Janina Wildfeuer & Tuomo Hiippala
2017 Multimodality: Foundations, research and analysis – A problem-oriented introduction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bednarek, Monika & James R. Martin
2010 New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodality, identity, and affiliation. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas
1988 Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A.
1959 Diglossia. Word 15. 325–340. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Firth, John R.
1957 Papers in linguistics 1934–1951. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, Michael J.
1967 Aspects of varieties differentiation. Journal of Linguistics 3. 177–198. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grishman, Ralph & Richard Kittredge
(eds.) 1986 Analyzing language in restricted domains: Sublanguage description and processing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gu, Yueguo
2002 Towards an understanding of workplace discourse – a pilot study for compiling a spoken Chinese corpus of situated discourse. In Christopher Candlin (ed.), Theory and practice of professional discourse, 137–185. Hong Kong: CUHK Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1961 Categories of the theory of grammar. Word 17(3). 242–292. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, On grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 37–94. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2002.Google Scholar
1970 Functional diversity in language, as seen from a consideration of modality and mood in English. Foundations of Language 6. 322–361. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Studies in English Language, volume 7 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 164–204. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2005 Google Scholar
1973 Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
[ p. 19 ]
1978 Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
1979 Modes of meaning and modes of expression: Types of grammatical structure and their determination by different semantic functions. In David J. Allerton, Edward Carney & David Holdcroft (eds.), Function and context in linguistic analysis: A festschrift for William Haas, 57–79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, On grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 196–218. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2002.Google Scholar
1985 It’s a fixed word order language is English. ITL Review of Applied Linguistics 67–68. 91–116. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Studies in English Language, volume 7 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 213–223. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2005.Google Scholar
1988 On the language of physical science. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), Registers of written English: Situational factors and linguistic features, 162–178. London & New York: Pinter Publishers. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, The language of science, volume 5 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 140–158. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2004.Google Scholar
1991 The notion of ‘context’ in language education. In Thao Le & Mike McCausland (eds.), Interaction and development: Proceedings of the international conference, Vietnam, 30 March – 1 April 1991, 1–26. University of Tasmania: Language education. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Language and education, volume 9 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 269–290. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2007.Google Scholar
1994 Language and the theory of codes. In Alan Sadovnik (ed.), Knowledge and pedagogy: The sociology of Basil Bernstein, 124–142. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Language and society, volume 10 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 231–246. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2007.Google Scholar
1996 On grammar and grammatics. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmel Cloran & David Butt (eds.), Functional descriptions: Theory into practice, 1–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, On grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 384–417. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2002 CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2002 Computing meanings: Some reflections on past experience and present prospects. In Guowen Huang & Zongyan Wang (eds.), Discourse and language functions, 3–25. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Computational and quantitative studies, volume 6 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 239–267. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum 2005.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K., Angus McIntosh & Peter Strevens
1964 The linguistic sciences and language teaching. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
2014 Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th edition). London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya
1973 Code, register and social dialect. In Basil Bernstein (ed.), Class, codes and control: Applied studies towards a sociology of language (volume 2), 253–292. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
[ p. 20 ]
1989 Semantic variation and sociolinguistics. Australian Journal of Linguistics 9. 221–275. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hiippala, Tuomo
2015 The structure of multimodal documents: An empirical approach. New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney D., Richard A. Hudson, Eugene Winter & Alick Henrici
1968 Sentence and clause in scientific English: Final report of O.S.T.I. Programme. University College London: Communication Research Centre.Google Scholar
Lukin, Annabelle
2019 War and its ideologies: A social-semiotic theory and description. Singapore: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Martin, James R.
1992 English text: System and structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Semantic variation – Modelling realisation, instantiation and individuation in social semiosis. In Monika Bednarek & James R. Martin (eds.), New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodality, identity, and affiliation, 1–34. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M.
1993 Register in the round: Diversity in a unified theory of register analysis. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), Register analysis: Theory and practice, 221–292. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
1995 Lexicogrammatical cartography: English systems. Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers.Google Scholar
2007 The “architecture” of language according to systemic functional theory: Developments since the 1970s. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen & Jonathan J. Webster (eds.), Continuing discourse on language (volume 2), 505–561. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
2009 Multisemiotic and context-based register typology: Registerial variation in the complementarity of semiotic systems. In Eija Ventola & Arsenio J. M. Guijarro (eds.), The world told and the world shown, 11–38. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
2013 Applying systemic functional linguistics in healthcare contexts. Text and Talk 33(4–5). 437–466.Google Scholar
2015a Register in the round: Registerial cartography. Functional Linguistics 2(9). 1–48.Google Scholar
2015b Registerial cartography: Context-based mapping of text types and their rhetorical-relational organisation. In Proceedings of PACLIC 28 12–14 December, Thailand. http://​www​.arts​.chula​.ac​.th​/~ling​/paclic28​/program​/pdf​/005​.pdf
2015c Modelling context and register: The long-term project of registerial cartography. In Revista Letras & Santa Maria (eds.), Estudos sistêmico-funcionais: Desdobramentos e interfaces, 50. 15–90.Google Scholar
2018 The notion of a multilingual meaning potential: A systemic exploration. In Akila Sellami-Baklouti & Lise Fontaine (eds.), Perspectives from systemic functional linguistics, 90–120. London: Routledge. Version with additional figures to be available at: http://​www​.syflat​.tn. Crossref
2019 Register in systemic functional linguistics. Register Studies 1(1).10–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 21 ]
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M., Bo Wang & Yuanyi Ma
Forthcoming. Expounding register and registerial cartography in systemic functional linguistics: An interview with Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen. Word.
McEnery, Tony & Andrew Hardie
2012 Corpus Linguistics: Method, theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, Stella
2012 Applying register analysis to varieties of English. In Monika Fludernik & Benjamin Kohlmann (eds.), Anglistentag 2011 Frei-burg Proceedings, 75–94. Trier: WVT.Google Scholar
2018 Register variation and regional varieties. The Third Halliday-Hasan Symposium 28–19 November 2018.Google Scholar
Patten, Terry
1988 Systemic text generation as problem solving. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Thomas B. W.
1956 Linguistics, structuralism, philology. Archivum Linguisticum 8. 28–37.Google Scholar
Ure, Jean N. & Jeffrey Ellis
1974 Register in descriptive linguistics and linguistic sociology. In Oscar Uribe-Villegas (ed.), Issues in sociolinguistics, 197–243. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Zhang, Kaela P.
2018 Public health education through posters in two world cities: A multimodal corpus-based analysis. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Chen, Wenge, Derek Irwin & Junjun Xing
2020. Towards a systemic functional model for characterizing Chinese loanwords in English: The case of kowtow. Lingua 248 ► pp. 102977 ff. Crossref logo
Tian, Jianqiu
2020. Construction of top university identity in high-stakes genres of public communication – a systemic functional discourse analysis of three genres of PKU and THU presidential talk and letter to prospective students. Journal of World Languages 6:1-2 ► pp. 113 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 january 2022. 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.