Language Registers

1. Major: English Language and Literature
Applied Linguistics Session 7 Parts 1 & 2
Language Registers
Dr. Badriya Al Mamari
Academic year 2021/2022

2. Session 7: Part 1
Approaches & Methods in English
Language Teaching (ELT)
Check the word document for details

3. Session 7: Part 2
•Language Registers

4. ➢Language varies according to the situation in which it is used.
➢Speakers have control over many registers and are able to
shift from one to another depending on the context and the
communicative needs (verbal repertoires)
➢Registers determine speakers’ linguistic choices at all linguistic
levels:
●What varies is intonation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.

5. Language use
➢Language use depends on the context and the relation
between the speakers
For example:
The way in which a mother talks to her child is different
from the way in which two professionals talk to each other,
and different again from the way in which two friends talk
to each other

6. Using real language ...
➢Typically, foreign language classes teach students the more
formal registers of the language
➢However, it is important that students learn to match the
right language with the right situation/the right people

7. This means …
Lexicon (vocabulary)
Grammar
Styles
Expressions
Intonation

8. Activity for fun
●http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxUm-2x-2dM

9. How to distinguish between words from formal and
informal registers
➢In English many words have been derived from Latin
➢Often Latin words coexist with Germanic (native English)
synonyms, but are used in more formal registers

10. Examples:
• Rapid
• Salute
• Obtain
• Difficult
• Possible
• Appear
• Sufficient
• Demonstrate
• Fast
• Greet
• Get
• Hard
• Likely
• Seem
• Enough
• Show
Latinate Germanic

11. More on formal and informal
registers
➢Many English words have also been borrowed from French
at different points in history
➢Words that entered the English vocabulary at times when
the Normans had political and cultural power in Britain still
enjoy greater prestige (are used in more formal styles)

12. Examples:
• Chef
• Cuisine
• Faux (cf. lat. false)
• Mutton
• Petite
• Veal
• Pork
• Legal words
• Cook
• Kitchen
• Fake
• Sheep
• Little, small
• Calf
• Pig
French Germanic

13. Phrasal verbs
➢Phrasal verbs are typically used:
●in spoken language
●in informal registers
➢For most phrasal verbs, there is an equivalent but more
formal, non-phrasal verb, often of Latin origin

14. Examples:
• Pick up
• Pick out
• Turn down
• Turn into
• Give away
• Sell out
• Go in
• Learn
• Select
• Decline
• Become
• Show
• Betray
• Enter
Phrasal verb Non-phrasal verb

15. Linguistic Competence
• The linguistics aspects of communicative
competence are those that have to do with
achieving an internalized functional knowledge of
the elements and structures of the language:

16. Linguistic competence
phonological
grammatical
lexical

17. Phonological
• The ability to recognize and produce the
distinctive meaningful sounds of a language
• consonants
• vowels
• tone patterns
• intonation patterns
• rhythm patterns
• stress patterns

18. Grammatical
• ability to recognize and produce the distinctive
grammatical structures of a language and to use
them effectively in communication
• syntax
• word endings
• irregular verb forms
• pronoun case

19. lexical
• the ability to recognize and use words in a language in a way that
speakers of the language use them
• Example:
chair and what makes it different from a stool, a sofa, or a bench.
They also need to know that a chair is a piece of furniture, and that
there are various kinds of chairs, including easy chairs, deck chairs,
office chairs, rocking chairs and so on.
They also need to understand how chair is now used in an extended
sense for what used to be termed a chairman, especially when
referring to a woman, as in Julie is the chair of the committee.

21. References:
• Cook, G. (2003). Applied linguistics.Oxford University Press.