Unit 3

3. English in many Shapes and Forms
(Trudgill, Dialects: 1994, pp. 10-14)

In addition to regional and social dialects and accents, English also has different styles, which are used in different social situations, and different registers, which are used for different topics.

A piece of English prose
Proguanil is effective against the tissue forms of some strains of P.falciparum and acts through an active metabolic cycloguanil. The mechanism of action is probably due to inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase. The effect of this action is to prevent schizogony and its main effect is against the developing primary tissue schizonts.

Dialects involve differences within the English language which have to do with where speakers grow up, and what sort of social background they come from. But there are also other sorts of difference within the English language, and in this unit we look at these differences and show that it is important to be able to distinguish between them and dialect differences.

For example, regardless what dialect people speak, they will use different sorts of language depending on what sort of social situation they find themselves in. No one uses exactly the same kind of English when they are talking to their friends in a cafe or pub as when they are talking to strangers in a more formal situation.

STYLES

Slang:
(Trudgill, Dialects: 1994, pp. 10-11)
Situational varieties of English of this type are known as styles, and stylistic variation can be thought of as taking place along a kind of sliding scale of formality. Styles of English range from very formal to very informal, with a whole continuum of varieties in between. Most often, differences between styles have to do with words, with very informal or colloquial vocabulary often being referred to as SLANG. For example, fatigued is a very formal word, while tired is an intermediate or neutral word, while knackered is a very informal or slang word. They all mean the same thing, but they are stylistically very different.
My companion is exceedingly fatigued.
has the same meaning as
My friend is extremely tired.
which has the same meaning as
My mate is bloody knackered.
But these three different sentences would be used in very different social situations, and produce different sorts of social effects.

It is important to notice, also, that style and dialect are independent of one another. It is true, of course, that the Standard English dialect is more likely to be used on formal public occasions where formal styles are also more likely to be used. But there is no necessary connection between Standard English and formal styles, or nonstandard dialects and informal styles.
My mate is bloody knackered.
is informal style, as we saw above, but it is also Standard English. On the other hand,
My friend be very tired.
which is stylistically less informal, is not in Standard English but some other dialect.

REGISTERS

Register:

(Trudgill, Dialects: 1994, p. 11)
There is another kind of variation within English, which is independent of both dialect and style. This has to do with the topic that the speaker is talking about. Kinds of language that reflect the subject being talked or written about are known as REGISTERS. These, too, have most often got to do with vocabulary. The language or register of medicine, for example, contains words such as:
appendectomy, clavicle and rubella.
The register of law includes words such as:
tort, hereinafter and felony.
The register of football consists of words such as:
midfield, one-two and corner.
And the register of car mechanics has words such as:
torque, tappets and clutch.

Technical register:
(Trudgill, Dialects: 1994, pp. 12)
Jargon:
The more TECHNICAL REGISTERS, such as that of medicine, raise an interesting point. Obviously, if you are going to be able to talk about a particular topic successfully, you need to learn the vocabulary that goes with that topic. If you don't know the special meaning that the word corner has in soccer, there are obviously still things you have to learn about the game. Part of learning physical geography is knowing what an esker is. And studying geometry will inevitably involve you in learning what hypotenuse means. But it is also true that you can discuss having your appendix out, or your collarbone, or German measles without acquiring the technical register of medicine. Part of the reason for saying clavicle rather than collarbone is to show that you are an insider in the medical profession. In other words, registers may have a social as well as linguistic function -- they show who is a member of the in-group and who is not. Outsiders often react to this by calling insiders' registers JARGON. If you think that appendectomy is 'jargon', you are probably not a doctor.

It is not necessary to use Standard English in order to speak formally. Neither is there any necessary connection between Standard English and technical registers. It is quite possible for Standard English speakers to swear and use slang vocabulary, just as it is possible for nonstandard speakers to use a whole range of styles. The independence of style, register and dialect can be seen in the following example:
Standard English dialect
He hasn't broken his clavicle.       neutral style, technical          
                                     register                          
He hasn't broken his collarbone.     neutral style, nontechnical       
He hasn't bust his clavicle.         informal style, technical         
He hasn't bust his collarbone.       informal style, nontechnical      
Nonstandard dialect
He ain't broke his clavicle.         neutral style, technical          
                                     register                          
He ain't broke his collarbone.       neutral style, nontechnical       
He ain't bust his clavicle.          informal style, technical         
He ain't bust his collarbone.        informal style, nontechnical      
EXERCISES
(Trudgill, Dialects: 1994, pp. 12-14)

3.1 Convert the following passage into a more informal style: [ANSWER]
Mother was somewhat displeased when she observed that I had omitted to remove my soiled garments from the kitchen and place them in a more appropriate location, a task which I had given her an undertaking that I would perform before Father's return from his place of employment.

3.2 Suppose that the following passage of prose was produced by a school pupil in response to a request to write a paragraph in Standard English and in a formal style. Identify features of (a) nonstandard dialect; (b) informal style; and (c) lack of knowledge of the appropriate register. [ANSWER]
When my old man come home last night, he was really bushed. He sat and watched telly all evening. I done my homework and then watched television too. An operator doctor was talking about the Health Service. It was really boring. Then there was the one in charge of hospitals. He wasn't very interesting neither.

3.3 Label the following sentences according to their dialect (standard or nonstandard), register (technical or nontechnical) and style (formal or informal). [ANSWER]
(a) I wants you to play this melody allegro, not adagio.
b) I want you to play this tune quickly, not slowly.
c) The rear off-side wheel look a bit wobbly.
d) The back left-hand wheel seems to be oscillating somewhat.
e) His patella sustained an injury.
f) He done his knee cap in.
g) The publican don't need no more firkins.
h) The landlord doesn't need any more small barrels.
i) She ain't attended no baptisms.
j) She hasn't been to any christenings.

3.4 Convert the following passage of prose into a less technical register and a more neutral style, using a dictionary if necessary:
If the regular premium tendered on a due date is greater than the existing aggregate regular premium on that due date, the company will issue a supplementary schedule on which the increment regular premium will be the amount by which the regular premium tendered exceeds the existing aggregate regular premium; provided that, if waiver of premium benefit is specified in the plan schedule as available, or there is an increase in the life cover, the issue of the supplementary schedule will be subject to evidence satisfactory to the company as to the continued insurability of the life assured for waiver of premium benefit or life cover on the existing terms.

3.5 It is of course not just professions such as law or medi have technical, specialised registers. Consider some informal or nonacademic activity, sport or hobby that you know something about, such as car mechanics, knitting, train-spotting, football, music or cooking, and make a list of technical terms associated with this activity that people who know nothing about the subject might not know or understand.

3.6 Invent examples of stylistically inappropriate greetings to different kinds of people such as friends, teachers, parents, shop assistants, etc.

3.7 Identify the style and register of the following passage, and list the features which led you to make this identification:
The ground was bare ice polished by the wind, with scattered pebbles embedded in it. As it steepened, the slope became covered with brick-hard snow on which I found that my short-pointed crampons tended to scrape and slip. I was heading for a snow-filled gully or couloir. The ridge now towered directly above our heads. The sherpa wanted me to move farther to the right, to the foot of the ridge before it reaches the edge of the col, and from the point we had reached the gully appeared to rise so steeply that for a moment I was inclined to agree that we might as well try the alternative rock climb. But it would now have involved a long detour to the right, and there was a compelling urge to economise energy as much as possible. Indeed we already had little in reserve. We stopped to take our first rest, sitting in a shallow groove of an incipient bergschrund which marks a sudden steepening of the gully.

3.8 Identify the style and register of the following passage, and list the features which led you to make this identification:
It is the business of epistemology to arrange the propositions which constitute our knowledge in a certain logical order, in which the later propositions are accepted because of their logical relation to those that came before them. It is not necessary that the later propositions should be logically deducible from the earlier ones; what is necessary is that the earlier ones should supply whatever grounds exist for thinking it likely that the later ones are true. When we are considering empirical knowledge, the earliest propositions in the hierarchy are not deduced from the other propositions, and yet are not mere arbitrary assumptions. They have grounds, though their grounds are not propositions, but observed occurrences. Such propositions, as observed above, I shall call basic propositions; they fulfil the function assigned by the logical positivists to what they call protocol propositions.