A case study of multi-stratal analysis

The domains of application in applied linguistics have changed considerably since the early 1960s. In most of these domains, the fundamental property of language as a resource for making meaning has increasingly been foregrounded. This approach recognises, amongst other dimensions of language, its multi-stratal character, i.e. that a given instance of language consists of patterns of meaning (semantics), realized by patterns of wording (grammar), realized by patterns of sounding (phonology) or writing (graphology). The co-selection of these patterns both construes and expresses the kind of social context in which the language operates. There has not yet been a register of English described from the point of view of all four strata. In this paper, we report on a research project which is developing a multi-stratal description of a service encounter, namely the ordering of fast food by telephone. We present some of the findings here regarding the likely cross-stratal patterns for this kind of service encounter, and suggest areas of future research.