Extending text-linguistic studies of register variation to a continuous situational space: Case studies from the web and natural conversation

Douglas Biber, Jesse Egbert, Daniel Keller, Stacey Wizner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In text-linguistic register research, distributions of linguistic features across registers are theorized as having a functional relationship to the situational context. A strength of this approach is its focus on frequencies of linguistic features across texts/registers. Situational variables, by contrast, have not been measured with the same granularity. Only recently have text-linguistic researchers begun to treat situational characteristics as continuous variables that vary between registers, and also across texts within registers. In the current chapter, we discuss the theoretical foundation of this perspective and present two studies of register variation from a continuous situation perspective. For both, we present methods for coding situational variables as continuous as well as key findings facilitated by the continuous situation perspective.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCorpus-based Approaches to Register Variation
EditorsElena Seoane, Douglas Biber
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages19-49
Number of pages31
ISBN (Electronic)9789027258458
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Publication series

NameStudies in Corpus Linguistics
Volume103

Keywords

  • Communicative function
  • Continuous situation
  • Conversation
  • Register analysis
  • Situational context
  • Web registers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Education
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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