REGISTER

Dian Wahyu Saputri 1910302076

Laode Setiawan 1910302088
Mellia Anggraita 1910302093
 2

Preliminary Issues
In research terms, it is also interesting to investigate
why and how such differences occur to formulate
strategies in case they cause communication
breakdowns in which they, if not dealt with
appropriately, may cause social conflicts among
language users within one speech community
 3

Register in Sociolinguistic
In sociolinguistics and other discussions on micro-
linguistics, the term ‘register’ refers to the use of lexical
items in relation to special professions — as has been
somehow touched upon in the previous paragraphs of this
chapter.
 4

Register in SFL
In SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics), the term
‘register’ refers to the three variables in language functions
(Halliday and Hasan, 1985). These variables include
“field”, “tenor” and “mode” of the discourse.
 5

Form
1. Written
2. Spoken
3. Written to be spoken
4. Spoken to be written
 6

Register vs Discourse
Discourse are formed by sequence of utterances. It is obvious
that many utterances taken by themself are ambiguous. The
can become clear only within the discourse.
 7

The Hallidayan Model of Language

This picture means that from the top to bottom is influence. Socio
cultural environment influence the discourse, then the discourse
influence genre and so on.
 8

Discourse Competence
The newest trend in language teaching/learning is for the students to
achieve discourse or communicative competence which actually
consists of some sub-competencies.

(Murcia, Celce; Dorneyi and Thurrell (1995).

 9

Continue…
The Hallidayan Model of Language shows the way in which a text is
created from context of culture, context of situation, and language
system.
- Context of culture : generating the genre of text
- Context of situation : generating the register—choice of words for
particular situations, including what we are and what we do
 10

Continue…
The Hallidayan Model of Language shows the way in which a text is
created from context of culture, context of situation, and language
system.
- Context of culture : generating the genre of text
- Context of situation : generating the register—choice of words for
particular situations, including what we are and what we do.
Halliday defines context of situation :
o Field
o Tenor
o Mode
 11

Field of the Discourse

Refers to the nature of the social action : what it is the interactions
about.
In Systemic functional Linguistics (EFL) it is represented in the verbal
processes and circumstantial phrases or more popularly referred to as
the ‘Transitivity Systems’ of the language.
 12

Field
Example :
Take a look at the following sentences:
(1) The students submitted the assignments via the class leader.
(2) The students thought that they had submitted the assignments via
the class leader.
(3) The students wanted to submit the assignments via the class leader.
 13

Tenor
Refers to the meanings manifested in how language users are
emotionally related in their use of the language. It is represented in the
use of mood (modal and modulation)
Example :
(1) Smoking can cause lung cancer.
(2) Smoking causes lung cancer.
(3) Smoking caused lung cancer.
 14

Communication Breakdown
The main concern of sociolinguistics is to avoid miscommunication
especially caused by social factors, which among others include the
following issues:
1. Power Relation
2. Geographical Factor
3. Register
 15

Power Relation
Power relation identifies each interlocutor in relation to the other
interlocutor.

Example:
A student and a teacher are related to each other in different powers.
The former is less powerful than the latter. For the less powerful one,
student is supposed to make a careful choice of lexico-grammar when
communicating with the teacher.
Example: “Good morning, Sir” instead of “Hi guys!”
 16

Geographical Factor
Geographical factor can contribute to communication breakdowns, especially
when the two dialects of the same language differ significantly in
pronunciation.
Example:
Javanese dialect of Banyumas
‘tekak’ means ‘come’
Gurune wis tekak → The teacher is coming

While in Javanese dialect of Yogyakarta

‘tekak’ means ‘strangle’
‘Tak tekak gulune’ → “I strangled his neck.”
 17

Register
• Register is another source of communication breakdown.
• Register is also a means of building communication ties among
language users.
Example:
Two people of the same profession → talking for hours,
Two people of different register backgrounds → conversation in
one or two words.
 18

Relevance to Language Teaching

- The teacher is necessary able to explain to the students some social
issues regarding the use of language in the society.
- Language registers are of paramount importance as the basic of
developing language teaching for specific purposes, for example, ESP
(English for Specific Purposes), resulting in several instructional
products, such as English for Economics, English for Medical
Profession, English for Aerodynamics, etc.
- Related to the tenor of the discourse, the teacher needs to explain that
individuals with different professions may want to develop a variety of
forms of interpersonal relations in order to be successful in the target
communication.
From this point, we realize that English is a very comprehensive language.
 19

Thank You