Register and Lexical Relations
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Date
2015-10-01
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Department of English, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
Abstract
Human beings speak and write in different ways depending on the situation and context of language use. Linguistic variables such as participants,field, mode, tenor. etc., account for HOW and WHY language users speak in a given situation. Whenever linguistic choices are selected to feature certain peculiarities of language use particularly within a given context, it is referred to as Register. Halliday, Mackintosh and Stevens (1964) see register as language "variety according to use". Register, therefore, is the distinctive use of words in a particular field. Register exhibits professionalism because it reflects familiarity with a subject matter, whether in speech or writing. Thus, certain vocabularies are seen to be appropriate in particular fields of discourse. For instance, there are vocabularies inherently associated to the field of sciences, humanities, economics, sports and entertainment, politics, religion, etc.
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Keywords
Lexical Relations, Semantic Relations, Linguistic Variables, Context