1. Register and genre theory (R&GT) is a label which can be applied to a range of linguistic approaches to discourse which seek to theorise how discourses, or texts, are like and unlike each other, and why. The R&G analysis consists of 2 steps: analysis of linguistic patterns and explanation why such patterns are used.

Step 1 of R&G analysis focuses on the detailed analysis of variation in linguistic features of discourse, that is, there is explicit (ideally quantifiable) specification of lexical, grammatical and semantic patterns in text.

In our Texts 1 and 2 we can find three areas of differences:

Text 1 Text 2

Step 2 of R&G analysis seek to explain linguistic variation by reference to variation in context, that is, explicit links are made between features of the discourse and critical variables of the social and cultural context in which the discourse is enacted.

Texts appear to carry with them some influences from the context in which they were produced. Context gets ‘into’ text by influencing the words and structures that text-producers use.

In our Texts 1 and 2 choices of vocabulary and structure are influenced by three contextual dimensions:

a. Mode is the channel of communication (spoken or written),b. Tenor relates to role and relationship of text-producer(s) and the audience of the text,c. Field is the subject matter of the text.

The immediate situational contexts dimensions help to explain why each text uses the linguistic patterns that it does. The analysis of Text 1 and Text 2 has demonstrated that linguistic differences between texts can be correlated with differences in the contexts in which the texts were produced.

2. Texts are semantically multidimensional, that is they are making more than one meaning at a time and those meanings can be intertwined. There are three types of meanings that can be listed:

a. Textual meaning organizes language into coherent and meaningful spoken or written texts,

b. Ideational (or experiential) meaning expresses what is going on, the people or things involved and the circumstances surrounding the events,

c. Interpersonal meaning expresses the different ways of establishing relationships with others – for example the way people position themselves in an argument or the way they evaluate phenomena.

3. The notion of meanings being intertwined in texts, and their correlation with contextual dimensions give approaches to R&GT and the two steps: analysis and explanation. Register and genre are the technical concepts employed to explain the meaning and function of variation between texts.

4. Register is a theoretical explanation of the common-sense observation that we use language differently in different situations. Contextual dimensions can be seen to impact on language by making certain meanings, and their linguistic expressions, more likely than others.

The language-context relationship (what dimensions of context matter to text, and how context gets ‘into’ text) is a central concern of register theorists.

5. In addition to register variations, texts may also exhibit variations in terms of genre. In traditional literary studies the term refers to ‘types of literary productions’ (for e.g. poems, novels, plays, etc.), each genre in turn can be sub-classified so that in an anthology we can have: ballads, epics, lyrics, etc. But genre has been broaden to include everyday types of interactive utterances, spoken or written, such as: transactional encounter of buying meat or a staff meeting in the workplace. Secondly, genres are defined functionally in terms of their social purpose. Thus, different genres are different ways of using language to achieve different culturally established tasks, and texts of different genres are texts which are achieving different purposes in the culture. We also recognise a text’s genre by the sequence of functionally distinct stages or steps through which it unfolds.

6. M.A.K. Halliday’s model of register theory

According to Halliday the most useful and accurate way of picturing language is as a system of choices. Each choice (whether made consciously or not) contributes something to the meaning of what is said.

His work on Chinese and later English grammar led him to the observation that the choices of meaning are organized into three main components, which he refers to as ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. Halliday made the important point that model of language of this kind can be ‘naturally’ related to the organization of context, with ideational meaning used to construct field (the social action), interpersonal meaning used to negotiate tenor (the role structure) and textual meaning used to develop mode (symbolic organization).

Halliday’s approach to register emphasizes systematic links between the organization of language and the organization of context. The relationship between the language components (the ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions) and context variables (field, tenor and mode) is term realization. From the perspective of context, realization refers to the way in which different types of field, mode and tenor condition ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning. From the perspective of language, realization refers to the way in which different ideational, interpersonal and textual choices construct different types of field, tenor and mode.