ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the important concept of register. A register of discourse is a regular, fixed pattern of vocabulary and grammar. A register shows what a speaker or writer is doing with language at a given moment. Most of our understanding of the concept of register comes through the tradition of systemic-functional linguistics inspired by M. A. K. Halliday and his co-researchers. The three contextual variables in register analysis are known as field, tenor and mode. A register indicates a specialism or expertise of sorts, and perhaps, in cases like legal language, even prestige. In times of war and conflict, new registers of language are quietly disseminated through the print and broadcast media. The use of register was of particular interest in the linguistic analysis of Nukespeak. Beneath the ostensibly bland and unassuming technical register is an agenda so appalling that it makes this the most disturbing piece of text imaginable.
