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In:Cross-linguistic Register Variation
Edited by Sylvi Rørvik and Marlén Izquierdo
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 125] 2026
► pp. 52–84

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Chapter 3
Exploring verbal register markers in English and Spanish promotional texts and essays

ORCiD logo with link | University of León
ORCiD logo with link | University of León
Published online: 20 February 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.125.03ram
Abstract
This study examines four verbal features — tense, modal constructions, directive forms, and the passive voice — across two registers (promotional texts in the food and drink domain and essays on current topics) in both English and Spanish to investigate potential shared patterns of register variation. Using three corpora, a comparable corpus of promotional texts and two essay corpora, the analysis reveals apparent intra- and interlinguistic differences. Promotional texts in both languages favour the present tense and directive forms, while essays more often use the past tense and modal auxiliaries or periphrases. The passive voice is more frequent in English promotional texts than in Spanish. The findings suggest that shared verbal features may reflect universal patterns of variation across languages and registers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Food and drink promotional texts vs essays in English and Spanish
  • 3.Verbal markers in English and Spanish
  • 4.Data and method
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Intralinguistic results: Specialised vs. non-specialised English verbal markers
      • 5.1.1English tenses in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.1.2English modal auxiliaries in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.1.3English directives in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.1.4English passive voice in specialised and non-specialised registers
    • 5.2Intralinguistic results: Specialised vs. non-specialised Spanish verbal markers
      • 5.2.1Spanish tenses in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.2.2Spanish modal periphrases in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.2.3Spanish directives in specialised and non-specialised registers
      • 5.2.4Spanish se-passives in specialised and non-specialised registers
    • 5.3Interlinguistic results: Verbal markers across languages and registers
      • 5.3.1Tense as a verbal register marker
      • 5.3.2Will/would and the future and conditional tenses as verbal register markers
      • 5.3.3Modal auxiliaries and modal periphrases as register markers
      • 5.3.4Directives as register markers
      • 5.3.5The passive voice as a register marker
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (82)
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