Variational Text Linguistics: Revisiting Register in English (Topics in English Linguistics) (Topics in English Linguistics [tiel], 90)

This volume fosters the field of 'variational text linguistics'. Its focus on both functional and regional types of textual variation provides new insights into the concept of 'register'. The book is a forum for the description and discussion of registers which have not received enough linguistic attention so far. The studies collected point out emerging trends as well as new directions for future research. Series page 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Acknowledgements 6 Table of contents 8 Introduction: Current trends in register research • Christoph Schubert 10 Section I: Specialised registers 26 Towards a user-based taxonomy of web registers • Douglas Biber and Jesse Egbert 28 The interrelationship of register and genre in medical discourse • Heidrun Dorgeloh 52 Aviation English: Two distinct specialised registers? • Markus Bieswanger 76 ‘Now niggas talk a lotta Bad Boy shit’: The register hip-hop from a corpus-linguistic perspective • Rolf Kreyer 96 The register of English crossword puzzles: Studies in intertextuality • Teresa Pham 120 Section II: Cross-register comparison 146 Punctuation as an indication of register: Comics and academic texts • Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer 148 Linking up register and cognitive perspectives: Parenthetical constructions in academic prose and experimentalist poetry • Martina Lampert 178 Cohesive devices across registers and varieties: The role of medium in English • Stella Neumann and Jennifer Fest 204 Section III: Regional, contrastive and diachronic register variation 230 Metaphors in New English academic writing • Barbara Güldenring 232 The influence of register on noun phrase complexity in varieties of English • Steffen Schaub 260 Real-time online text commentaries: A cross-cultural perspective • Valentin Werner 280 Word order is in order here: A diachronic register analysis of syntactic markedness in English • Javier Pérez-Guerra 316 Index 346 Owing to the ever-increasing possibilities of communication, especially with the advent of modern communication technologies, register analysis offers a constantly widening range of research opportunities. Still, research has mainly concentrated on well-established and frequent registers such as newspaper articles, while many descriptive and theoretical issues have not yet been sufficiently investigated.This volume gives a state-of-the-art insight into register studies and points out emerging trends as well as new directions for future research. Furthermore, it provides a forum for the description and discussion of registers which have not received an appropriate amount of attention so far. In particular, it deals with specialized offline and online registers, cross-register comparison as well as regional, contrastive, and diachronic register variation.In parallel to the new discipline of variational pragmatics, this volume aims to foster the discipline of ‘variational text linguistics'and to initiate fundamental investigations in this area. This field of research provides new insights into the concept of register, since it covers both functional and regional types of textual variation. Owing to the ever-increasing possibilities of communication, especially with the advent of modern communication technologies, register analysis offers a constantly widening range of research opportunities. Still, research has mainly concentrated on well-established and frequent registers such as newspaper articles, while many descriptive and theoretical issues have not yet been sufficiently investigated.This volume gives a state-of-the-art insight into register studies and points out emerging trends as well as new directions for future research. Furthermore, it provides a forum for the description and discussion of registers which have not received an appropriate amount of attention so far. In particular, it deals with specialized offline and online registers, cross-register comparison as well as regional, contrastive, and diachronic register variation.In parallel to the new discipline of variational pragmatics, this volume aims to foster the discipline of 'variational text linguistics' and to initiate fundamental investigations in this area. This field of research provides new insights into the concept of register, since it covers both functional and regional types of textual variation Deals with the field of 'variational text linguistics'. This book focuses on both functional and regional types of textual variation that provides new insights into the concept of 'register'. It is a forum for the description and discussion of registers which have not received enough linguistic attention so far.