Variation and Style Flashcards
recall the similarities between the general understanding of “style” and “register”
(Martin Joos’ five “styles”)
It should, however, be noted that Joos uses “style” and “register” interchangeably.
-does not provide a detailed linguistic account of the differences among the proposed speech styles.
An approach of special interest to the study of style is the pioneer classification by American linguist Martin Joos (1962), which distinguishes five styles in accordance with different levels of formality: frozen (the most formal), formal, consultative (neutral), casual, and intimate (the least formal).
Frozen (static): the most complex grammatical sentence structure and vocabulary, formulaic, ritualized expressions, it is used in very formal situations, the listener/reader cannot/is not allowed to cross-question the speaker/writer.
Formal (regulated): keeps the sentence structure elaborate, does not allow ellipsis (i.e., omissions), pronunciation is explicit, the speaker/writer must provide a delimitation of field for their discourse beforehand, intended to inform and/or persuade, a defining charateristic of this style is the absence of participation of the interlocutor.
Casual (group): it is commonly used among friends and acquaintances, it can include slang, colloqualisms, and ellipsis (phonological, grammatical, lexical): e.g., “I believe that I can find one” → “Believe I c’n find one”, bi- or multi-directional (it involves two or more members of the same group), has various purposes (e.g., have fun, to foster team spirit), the context is general (e.g., visit to the mall, bus ride after school).
Intimate (private, personal): it is commonly used between two very close individuals such as parent–child, spouses, siblings, best friends, it can include slang, colloqualisms and it is even more elliptical, has various purposes (e.g., have fun, to foster closeness), the context is general (e.g., visit to the mall, bus ride after school), the intimate style does not follow standard societal rules, but rather the “norms” of the two individuals involved in a close relationship.
Consultative (professional): the “unmarked” or baseline speech style among people who do not know each other or do not enjoy the same socio-professional status, the speaker supplies background information, bi- or multi-directional, the purpose is specific (e.g., to get help with something, to offer instructions), the context is equally specific (e.g., classroom, workplace), it follows standard societal rules and sometimes involves the use of honorifics (e.g., Mr./Mrs./Miss, Dr., Prof.).
define “style” as understood by William Labov (variationist sociolinguistics)
In variationist sociolinguistics, style refers to the degree of attention the addresser affords to their speech. The
more attention they give to it, the more formal the context.
William Labov (1972) conceptualized stylistic variation along a one-dimensional, monolingual continuum, which includes two conversational styles – casual speech and careful speech.
Labov did not explicitly define “style,” yet he summarized his ideas about it in five principles, the two most important in this context being:
a) All speakers control and use more than one style
b) Styles can be ranged along a single dimension, measured by the amount of attention paid to speech.
explain the concept of “style” from the point of view of the following theories:
communication accommodation theory, audience design model, footing and framing model, politeness theory
ACCOMMODATION THEORY
Howard Giles’ Communication
Accomodation Theory.
- speakers shift between styles to forge closer bonds with others or to create distance between themselves and their interlocutors.
Accommodation: Convergence (individuals adapt to other styles) & Divergence (individuals impose dominance over their style)
AUDIENCE DESIGN MODEL (Allan Bell - 1984)
- very similar to the communication
accommodation theory with an added component: the audience design model proposes the existence of (non-)present reference groups, with which a speaker may converge or diverge.
In audience design, speakers accommodate their speech style to present or imagined audiences.
Speakers style their speech to accommodate their addressee first and foremost, but they also take into account
third persons (auditors and overhearers), whose perceived presence affects one’s style to some degree.
FOOTING AND FRAMING MODEL
A footing is a role that a speaker performs, may change many times during the course of a single interaction,
A frame of the discourse, which is the feeling of the interactants about what kind
of interaction is occurring (e.g., formal interview, casual conversation, political discussion, etc.)
= The footings that speakers adopt through style-shifting are dependent on which frames are most prominent at any given time.
POLITENESS THEORY
Politeness research was originally stimulated by Erving Goffman’s writing on the presentation of self in everyday life
- The premise of the theory is that people have a universal desire to be treated with politeness.
- The central concept of this theory is “face,” which is our desired self-image, a way we want to be seen by others.
a) Positive face = an individual’s desire to be liked and appreciated by others.
b) Negative face = an individual’s desire to protect their freedom of speech and action.
Brown and Levinson suggest that when we are rude to people or impede their personal freedoms, we commit face-threatening acts (FTA) against those people.
When we admit and apologise for our shortcomings, we commit face-threatening acts (FTA) against ourselves.
- Register of a situation
People opt for standard and non-standard varieties of the same language or different languages (in the case of bilingual/multilingual individuals or communities) under different circumstances.
In choosing the appropriate variety, different variables come into play:
Any combination of these features – field (topic), mode (channel of communication), and tenor (degree of familiarity with the addresee) – creates the register of a
situation.
- Term of ”Register”
The term “register,” coined by British philologist Thomas B. Reid in 1956, became a topic of academic interest
for another British scholar, Michael K.A. Halliday, who differentiates between:
“varieties of language according to the user” = dialects
“varieties of language according to use” = registers
Register refers to “differences in the type of language selected as appropriate to different types of situation”.
They vary from, say, the “babytalk” register to occupation-related registers such as “legalese” (= jargon).
Registers typically differ from one another in terms of lexis (vocabulary) and semantics (meaning, e.g., scientific terminology in scientific registers).
- Term of ”Style”
Style (in its most general sense) refers to a distinctive way of speaking or writing.
People adopt different styles in different contexts (e.g., in the case of speaking style, depending on their
addressee, the topic of conversation, the physical setting, etc.).
Styles may differ on several linguistic levels (i.e., in terms of words, grammatical structures,
pronunciation).
Stylistic choices are meaningful, partly in terms of contrasts (i.e., the choice of one word, pronunciation, etc.
rather than another that might have been used).
