ABSTRACT
Corpus-based studies of text varieties (what this chapter calls registers and genres) have contributed substantially to our understanding of how language use varies across situations (i.e. register variation). Likewise, corpus-based research has enabled detailed descriptions of specific domains (such as business meetings, academic lectures, fiction writing, news and blogs, to name just a few). This chapter surveys corpus-based research on language use across a wide range of domains from two perspectives: the register perspective and the genre perspective. From a register perspective, the chapter explores how linguistic patterns of use are mediated by register, including phraseological patterns, grammar/lexico-grammar, stance and evaluation, applied register research and multi-dimensional analysis. From a genre perspective, the register summarises research on the rhetorical structuring of texts through move analysis. The chapter concludes by discussing two developing areas of research in the field: juxtapositions of the register and genre approaches and the growing focus on internet-based text categories.
