Purposive Communication: Varieties and Registers of Spoken and Written Language

Purposive
Communication
Varieties and Registers

of
Spoken
and Written Language
Learning Objective:
Language Variety
 also called lect.
 any distinctive form of a language or
linguistic expression.
 it refers to any of the overlapping
subcategories of a language including :
- dialect - register
- jargon - idiolect.
Difference of Lect
from Standard English
Lect
• develop for a number of reasons:
1. geographical = people live in different
geographic areas often develop distinct dialect –
variations of standard English.
• Jargon = language from specific academic and

professional groups which is known to and
understood by members of the group.
• idiolects = developed by individuals
Standard English
• a form of the English language that is
written and spoken by educated users.
• it is synanymuous to good and correct

English usage.
• it also refers to a specific geographical
dialect of English or a dialect of English
• or a dialect favored by the most powerful

and prestigious social group.
Subcategories of Language Variety
1. Dialect
 Greek word :
dia = ‘across,between’
legein = ‘speak’
Definition :
 characterize as a way of speaking
that differs from the standard variety of
the language.
 “All dialects start with the same
system , and their partly independent
histories leave different parts of the
parent system intact. This gives rise to
some of the most persistent myths
about language , such as the claim that
the people of Appalachia speak
Elizabethan English.”
- Sarah Thomason- Linguistic Society of
Americans
Dialect prejudice :
certain dialects
gained negative
connotations in the
U.S., thus the term
 refers to discrimination
based on a person’s dialect or
way of speaking .
According to Carolyn temple and Donna
Christian in their article, “Applied Social
Dialectology:
“… dialect prejudice is endemic in public life, widely

tolerated and institutionalized in social enterprise
that affect almost everyone such as education and
media.
There is limited knowledge about and little regard
for linguistic study showing that all varieties of a
language display systematically and that the
elevated social position of standard varieties has
no specific linguistic basis.”
2. Register
is defined as the way a speaker uses
language differently in different
circumstances.
Observe how you speak with a friend
and compare it with the way you should
speak before an audience or during an
interview varies formality.
This variation is called stylistic
variation is known as register in linguistics
Factors which determine Registers:
- social occasion
- context
- purpose
- audience
They are marked with a variety of

specialized vocabulary and turns of
phrases, colloquialisms, the use of
jargon and difference in intonation and
pace.
 Registers may be extremely rigid or
very intimate depending on the
following:
1. grammar
2. syntax
3. tone
3. Jargons
refers to the specialized language of a
professional or occupational group.
Such language is often meaningless to
outsiders.
George Packer describes jargon in a similar
vein in a 2016 article in the New
Yorker magazine:
“Professional jargon—on Wall Street, in

humanities departments, in government
offices—can be a fence raised to keep out
the uninitiated and permit those within it
to persist in the belief that what they do is
too hard, too complex, to be questioned.
Jargon acts not only to euphemize but to
license, setting insiders against outsiders
and giving the flimsiest notions a
In other words, jargon is a faux method of
creating a sort of dialect that only those on this
inside group can understand.
Jargon has social implications similar to
dialect prejudice but in reverse:
-It is a way of making those who
understand this particular variety of
language more erudite and learned;
-those who are members of the group that
understands the particular jargon are
considered smart, while those on the
outside are simply not bright enough to
Types of Lects
1. Regional dialect:
A variety spoken in a particular region.
Zamboanga
Ilocano Visayan Reg.

2. Sociolect:
Also known as a social dialect, a variety
of language (or register) used by a
socioeconomic class, a profession, an age
group, or any other social group.
Examples:
gay lingo
jejemon
3.Ethnolect:
A lect spoken by a specific ethnic group.
For example, Ebonics, the vernacular spoken
by some African-Americans.
4.Idiolect:
The language or languages spoken by
each individual.

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Purposive

Varieties and Registers

• Jargon = language from specific academic and

• it is synanymuous to good and correct

• or a dialect favored by the most powerful

“… dialect prejudice is endemic in public life, widely

They are marked with a variety of

“Professional jargon—on Wall Street, in

Ilocano Visayan Reg.

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