Sociolinguistics.ppt

Tenor of discourse(话语意旨)
Tenor of discourse refers to the role of relationship in the situation in question: who the participants in the communication group are and in what relationship they stand to each other. It answers the question of “to whom ” the speaker is communicating. This dimension to a great extent determines the level of formality and the level of technicality of the language we use.
Sociolinguistics
(B)
Instructor: Hua Xianfa
Chapter III Language and Context
3.1. Varieties of language related to the use 3.1.1. Speech repertoire(言语语库) In any speech community there is no single style
3.1.2.Register(语域)
Language variability is not haphazard as is usually assumed, it is rule-governed, and constrained by social variables. There are many social constraints that come into play in controlling which variety from the speech repertoire of a speaker is to be used on a particular occasion. Apart from speech community context from which are derived various dialectal varieties, there is another kind of situational factor which can be described by Halliday’s register theory.
Three social variables that determiΒιβλιοθήκη Baidue the register
Field of discourse(话语范围) Field of discourse is the linguistic reflection of the
purpose role of the language user in the situation in which a text has occurred. In other words, it is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter of communication. It answers the question of ‘Why’ and ‘About what’ communication takes place. Field of discourse may be non-technical or technical. Shopping, game-playing and a personal letter are instances of non-technical fields. Technical fields refer to the specialist fields such as a linguist giving a lecture in class and meteorologists talking about the weather.
What is register?
The term “register” is used by some linguists in a restricted sense, referring to the language used in pursuance of one’s job, whereas Halliday uses “register” in a much broader sense. According to Halliday, “Language varies as its function varies,; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as appropriate to a type of situation is a register. Registers are simply a rather special case of a particular kind of language being produced by the social situation.
speaker. Any individual controls a number of varieties of a language or of two or more language, that is, he or she has a speech repertoire. “A speech repertoire is the range of linguistic varieties which the speaker has at his disposal and which he may appropriately use as a member of his speech community.”(Platt and Platt)