ABSTRACT
A framework for understanding and describing language varieties has to deal with the constant features of the situational circumstances of language events that can be consistently related to variety in the language texts. 'A language variety is a sub-set of formal and/or substantial features which correlates regularly with a particular type of socio-situational feature'. A variety category is then a contextual category correlating groupings of linguistic features with recurrent situational features. The mode of discourse is the linguistic reflection of the relationship the language user has to the medium of transmission. Initially, this relationship may be seen as the simple one of which medium is being used: speech or writing. Categories such as user's individuality, temporal provenance, geographical provenance, social provenance, range of intelligibility, purposive role, medium relationships and personal and functional addressee relationship are general situational categories for the description of language events.
