Register and degrees of formality

In a nutshell

After deciphering a text's context, you should look at various aspects to work out its register: what kind of language does it use, what is the mode of communication and how formal is the text?

Context is key

The first thing you should do when analysing a text is not to jump straight in with the annotations. Instead, read the text once or twice over in its entirety and consider some general questions that apply to the whole text:

What is register?

The register of a text is a measure of its formality. Register informs all language levels: the type of vocabulary used, syntax; and for spoken texts, pronunciation and accent/dialect. Register is on a scale from high to low, with high-register texts being used in formal, and often written, contexts while low-register texts are informal and often spoken.

The following aspects contribute towards a text's overall register:

Field 

Field refers to the relationships between words with similar meanings. Lexical field is the association of different words within the same semantic domain. This means that words highly related to each other feature in the same lexical field. Look out for the lexical field in your text when it comes to analysing register: is it full of techy jargon, or is the vocabulary accessible to a wider audience?

Example

Apple, grapes and tomato are all words in the same lexical field: the lexical field of fruit.

Mode

Mode is the method of communication: in simple terms, spoken or written. Mode is complicated by the fact that much is communicated outside of these modes: users of sign languages, for example, use the visual-manual mode to communicate ideas. When you give a presentation, you are also likely to communicate information in a non-verbal mode with body language and/or facial expressions. In this same presentation, your audience might look at images, figures, diagrams, charts and graphs – this is communication via visual mode. 

Mixed mode or multimodal texts are hybrids between multiple different modes. Text messages, for example, communicate ideas through written text, but emojis add a further visual mode of communication.

Example

This girl is using visual-manual mode to communicate the idea of "peace".	This text message might use a combination of spoken mode (in voice messages), written mode (in a normal text message) and visual mode (using GIFs and emojis).

Manner

Manner is the aspect of register that pertains to how formal/informal a text is. When deciding formality, think: how much does this text follow a particular established form? Are Standard English conventions strictly followed, or does the text have a more informal feel? Does the text contain Latinate vocabulary (vocabulary derived from Latin/French which often signifies a high register), or is it stuffed full of slang terms and idioms? A letter from the tax office is likely to follow a rigid structure that a conversation with a friend at a coffee shop does not. 

Generally, spoken texts are less formal and written texts are more formal, but there are exceptions: a presentation at a business conference is likely to be much more formal than a love note written from husband to wife on the kitchen counter.