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Re: "Register" a grammatical term

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 17:28
I just wondered if "register" was ever used to
refer to the familiar/honorific axis of grammar.
I seem to remember so but it might be that I
came up with it myself.

BTW, sorry for late answers.  I went of on a
sudden Monday PM--Wednesday AM dash to Germany...

/BP

Mark J. Reed skrev:
> That was my thought, that "grammatical" is being (mis)used (overly) > broadly. There are grammatical aspects of register, but its not a > grammatical phenomenon... > > > > On 8/18/08, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...> wrote: >> Ray Brown wrote: >> >>>>> Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Could someone with access to Trask's and Crystal's >>>>> lingyuistic dictionaries be so kind to look up how >>>>> they define "register" as a grammatical term? >>>>> >>>>> Thanks, >>>> Crystal: >>>> (1) A term used in phonetics to refer to the voice quality produced >>> [etc. snipped] >>> >>> Charlie has given you in full the two definitions given by Crystal. Neither >>> >>> of them are, as you will have read, are uses as _grammatical_ terms. >>> >> The 2nd def. given by Crystal in Charlie's post accords with my knowledge >> and use of the term; IIRC it's been in use since at least the 70s, when >> people like Derek Bickerton began looking seriously at pidgins/creoles (and >> stigmatized dialects like AAVE) and the associated bi- or poly-dialectism. >> For example, those Jamaicans (and others Caribbean islanders) who can switch >> from pure local creole to the Queen's English (and points in between) at the >> drop of a hat-- and then realized that, well, we all do something like that >> when the occasion demands. >> >> Perhaps "grammatical term" should be interpreted as "term used by linguists" >> :-)))))) >> >

Reply

R A Brown <ray@...>