Dimensions of Register Variation: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison

by Douglas Biber

• ISBN13: 9780521024112
• ISBN10: 0521024110
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Douglas Biber's new book extends and refines the research and methodology reported in his ground breaking Variation Across Speech and Writing (CUP 1988). In Dimensions of Register Variation he gives a linguistic analysis of register in four widely differing languages: English, Nukulaelae Tuvaluan, Korean, and Somali. Using the multi-dimensional analytical framework employed in his earlier work, Biber carries out a principled comparison of both synchronic and diachronic patterns of variation across the four languages. Striking similarities as well as differences emerge, allowing Biber to predict for the first time cross-linguistic universals of register variation. This major new work will provide the foundation for the further investigation of cross-linguistic universals governing the pattern of discourse variation across registers, and will be of wide interest to any scholar interested in style, register and literacy.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
List of tables	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
List of abbreviations	xvii
Introduction	1	(26)
The comprehensive analysis of register variation	27	(11)
Sociocultural description of the four language situations	38	(21)
The linguistic bases of cross-linguistic register comparisons: a detailed quantitative comparison of English and Somali registers	59	(26)
Methodology	85	(56)
Multi-Dimensional analyses of the four languages	141	(95)
Cross-linguistic patterns of register variation: synchronic similarities and differences	236	(44)
Cross-linguistic patterns of register variation: diachronic similarities and differences	280	(34)
Registers and text types in English and Somali	314	(45)
Towards cross-linguistic universals of register variation	359	(5)
Appendix I: Grammatical description of linguistic features in Korean. Yong-Jin Kim	364	(17)
Appendix II: Grammatical description of linguistic features in Somali. With Mohamed Hared	381	(22)
Notes	403	(12)
References	415	(10)
Index	425