Cover not available

In:Corpus-based Approaches to Register Variation
Edited by Elena Seoane and Douglas Biber
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 103] 2021
► pp. 143–178

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 6
A register variation perspective on varieties of English

 | RWTH Aachen University
 | FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Published online: 8 December 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.103.06neu
Abstract
This chapter reports an exploration of dimensions of register variation across varieties of English. We analyse 2,844 texts from the Hong Kong, Jamaica and New Zealand components of the International Corpus of English, using its text categorization scheme as a frame of reference. We apply Geometric Multivariate Analysis, an interactive procedure for exploring latent structure in language variation, based on the frequencies of 41 lexico-grammatical features informed by systemic functional register theory. Visual inspection of the distribution of texts across the multidimensional space reveals continuities between groups of texts as well as dimensions of variation that can be related to theoretical register constructs. We also observe differences between the three ICE components (and their text categories) in register space.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.State of the art
  • 3.Data
    • 3.1The corpus
    • 3.2Feature extraction
  • 4.Geometric multivariate analysis
    • 4.1The first four dimensions of the LDA
    • 4.2Observations about variation across the three varieties
    • 4.3General discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (53)
References
Argamon, Shlomo, Casey Whitelaw, Paul Chase, Sobhan Raj Hota, Navendu Garg & Shlomo Levitan. 2007. Stylistic text classification using functional lexical features. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58(6): 802–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas. 1986. Spoken and written textual dimensions in English: Resolving the contradictory findings. Language 62(2): 384–414. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. A typology of English texts. Linguistics 27: 3–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Dimensions of Register Variation. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas & Egbert, Jesse. 2016. Register variation on the searchable web: A multi-dimensional analysis. Journal of English Linguistics 44(2): 95–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas & Finegan, Edward (eds). 1994. Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech, Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan & Finegan, Ed. 1999. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Winston, Cheng, Joe, Allaire, J. J., Xie, Yihui & McPherson, Jonathan. 2020. Shiny: Web Application Framework for R. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Diwersy, Sascha, Evert, Stefan & Neumann, Stella. 2014. A weakly supervised multivariate approach to the study of language variation. In Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register Analysis. Linguistic Variation in Text and Speech [Linguae & Litterae 28], Benedikt Szmrecsanyi & Bernhard Wälchli (eds), 174–204. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egbert, Jesse & Biber, Douglas. 2018. Do all roads lead to Rome? Modeling register variation with factor analysis and discriminant analysis. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 14(2): 233–273. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egbert, Jesse & Mahlberg, Michaela. 2020. Fiction – One register or two? Speech and narration in novels. Register Studies 2(1): 72–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan. 1972. On sociolinguistic rules: Alternation and co-occurrence. In Directions in Sociolinguistics. The Ethnography of Communication, John J. Gumperz & Dell H. Hymes (eds), 213–50. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evert, Stefan & Hardie, Andrew. 2011. Twenty-first century corpus workbench: Updating a query architecture for the new millennium. In Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics Conference 2011, University of Birmingham, UK, 20–22 July 2011. Birmingham: University of Birmingham. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Evert, Stefan & Neumann, Stella. 2017. The impact of translation direction on characteristics of translated texts. A multivariate analysis for English and German. In Empirical Translation Studies. New Theoretical and Methodological Traditions, Gert De Sutter, Marie-Aude Lefer & Isabelle Delaere (eds), 47–80. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evert, Stefan & The CWB Development Team. 2020. The IMS Open Corpus Workbench (CWB) CQP Query Language Tutorial (version CWB Version 3.5). <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Garside, Roger & Smith, Nicholas. 1997. A hybrid grammatical tagger: CLAWS4. In Corpus Annotation: Linguistic Information from Computer Text Corpora, Roger Garside, Geoffrey Leech & Anthony McEnery (eds), 102–121. London: Longman. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Greenbaum, Sidney. 1996b. Introducing ICE. In Comparing English Worldwide. The International Corpus of English, Sidney Greenbaum (ed.), 3–12. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.). 1996a. Comparing English Worldwide: The International Corpus of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gregory, Michael. 1967. Aspects of varieties differentiation. Journal of Linguistics 3(2): 177–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grieve-Smith, Angus B. 2007. The envelope of variation in multidimensional register and genre analyses. In Corpus Linguistics Beyond the Word [Language and Computers 60], Eileen Fitzpatrick (ed.), 21–42. Leiden: Brill Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1978. Language as Social Semiotic. The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988. On the language of physical science. In Registers of Written English: Situational Factors and Linguistic Features, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), 162–177. London: Frances Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991. Towards probabilistic interpretations. In Functional and Systemic Linguistics. Approaches and Uses, Eija Ventola (ed.), 39–61. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Methods – techniques – problems. In Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics, Michael A. K. Halliday & Jonathan J. Webster (eds), 59–87. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Hasan, Ruqaiya. 1989. Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 2014. Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar, 4th edn. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hundt, Marianne, Röthlisberger, Melanie & Seoane, Elena. 2018. Predicting voice alternation across academic Englishes. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 17(1): 189–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell H. 1972. Models of the interaction of language and social life. In Directions in Sociolinguistics. The Ethnography of Communication, John J. Gumperz & Dell H. Hymes (eds), 35–71. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karlgren, Jussi & Cutting, Douglass. 1994. Recognizing text genres with simple metrics using discriminant analysis. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING 1994), Volume 2, 1071–1075. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koch, Peter & Oesterreicher, Wulf. 1985. Sprache Der Nähe – Sprache Der Distanz: Mündlichkeit Und Schriftlichkeit Im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie Und Sprachgeschichte. In Romanistisches Jahrbuch 36: 15–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kruger, Haidee & van Rooy, Bertus. 2018. Register variation in written contact varieties of English: A multidimensional analysis. English World-Wide: A Journal of Varieties of English 39 (2): 214–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1935. Coral Gardens and Their Magic. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 1993. Register in the round: Diversity in a unified theory of register analysis. In Register Analysis. Theory and Practice, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), 221–292. London: Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019. Register in systemic functional linguistics. Register Studies 1(1): 10–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neumann, Stella. 2012. Applying register analysis to varieties of English. In Anglistentag 2011 Freiburg Proceedings, Monika Fludernik & Benjamin Kohlmann (eds), 75–94. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Buchverlag Trier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014a. Contrastive Register Variation: A Quantitative Approach to the Comparison of English and German. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neumann, Stella & Fest, Jennifer. 2016. Cohesive devices across registers and varieties: The role of medium in English. In Variational Text Linguistics, Christoph Schubert & Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer (eds), 195–220. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2018. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Sand, Andrea. 2004. Shared morpho-syntactic features in contact varieties of English: Article use. World Englishes 23(2): 281–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. Postcolonial English. Varieties around the World. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stamatatos, Efstathios, Fakotakis, Nikos & Kokkinakis, George. 2000. Automatic text categorization in terms of genre and author. Computational Linguistics 26(4): 471–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2019. Register in variationist linguistics. Register Studies 1(1): 76–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tambouratzis, George, Markantonatou, Stella, Hairetakis, Nikolaos, Vassiliou, Marina, Carayannis, George & Tambouratzis, Dimitrios. 2004. Discriminating the registers and styles in the modern Greek language-Part 1: Diglossia in stylistic analysis. Literary and Linguistic Computing 19 (2): 197–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taverniers, Miriam. 2019. Semantics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, David Schönthal, Geoff Thompson, Lise Fontaine & Wendy L. Bowcher (eds), 55–91. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teich, Elke. 2013. Choices in analyzing choice: Methods and techniques for register analysis. In Systemic Functional Linguistics: Exploring Choice, Lise Fontaine, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds), 417–31. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Rooy, Bertus, Terblanche, Lize, Haase, Christoph & Schmied, Joseph. 2010. Register differentiation in East African English: A multidimensional study. English World-Wide 31(3): 311–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Deanna, Cassidy, Steve & Peters, Pam. 2011. Updating the ICE annotation system: Tagging, parsing and validation. Corpora 6(2): 115–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiao, Richard. 2009. Multidimensional analysis and the study of World Englishes. World Englishes 28(4): 421–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Freiwald, Jonas & Stella Neumann
2025. Re-opening the case. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies DOI logo
Frenken, Florian
2025. 115A multivariate register perspective on Reddit: Exploring lexicogrammatical variation in online communities. In Exploring digitally-mediated communication with corpora, ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
Frenken, Florian, Stephanie Evert, Gerold Schneider & Stella Neumann
2025. How stable are multivariate findings about register variation across varieties of English? On the replicability of Geometric Multivariate Analysis. ICAME Journal 49:1 ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Pauls, Tobias
2025. SEEFLEX. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research DOI logo
Neumann, Stella, Elma Kerz & Arndt Heilmann
2024. Comparing contact effects in translation and second language writing. In Constraints on Language Variation and Change in Complex Multilingual Contact Settings [Contact Language Library, 60], ► pp. 223 ff. DOI logo
SHAKIR, MUHAMMAD
2024. An exploratory investigation of functional variation in South Asian online Englishes. English Language and Linguistics 28:2 ► pp. 371 ff. DOI logo
Van Hoey, Thomas, Xiaoyu Yu, Tung-Le Pan & Youngah Do
2024. What ratings and corpus data reveal about the vividness of Mandarin ABB words. Language and Cognition 16:4 ► pp. 1674 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2024. Textbook English [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 116], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue