Use-related varieties

Use-related varietiesare associated with function, such as legal English (the language of courts, contracts, etc.) and literary English (the typical usage of literary texts, conversations, etc.). A variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting is called register. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in - ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal (e.g. walking, not walkin), choose more formal words (e.g. father vs. dad, child vs. kid, etc.), and refrain from using the word ain’t when speaking in a formal setting, but the same person could violate all of these prescriptions in an informal setting.

Register can vary according to Medium, Domain or Tenor

Medium (sometimes called mode of discourse by other writers): Your language changes according to the medium used: e.g. the language of speech, the language of writing.

Domain (sometimes called field of discourse by other writers): Your language changes according to he domain that the language is related to. This includes (a) the subject matter being spoken or written about (cf. the language of science, the language of law) and (b) the function that the language is being used for (cf. the language of advertising, the language of government). The term that is used to describe language varities of this kind by some of the scholars is functional style (the five main functional styles according to, for instance, I. R. Galperin being belles-lettres, publicistic, newspaper, scientific and official document styles).

Tenor (or style of discourse): The tenor of your language (e.g. how politely or formally you speak) changes according to (a) who you are talking or writing to (cf. the language we use when talking to close friends compared with that used when talking to strangers or people who are socially distant from us) and (b) the social situation you find yourself in (e.g a child whose mother is a teacher will talk to her in different ways, depending on whether they are at home or at school).

As with other types of language variation, there tends to be a spectrum of registers rather than a discrete set of obviously distinct varieties — there is a countless number of registers we could identify, with no clear boundaries. One of the possible classifications of register in terms of formality / informality singles out five groups of language means starting from slang – a sub-standard variety presupposing the use of very informal kind of vocabulary, mostly in speech by people who know each other well – finishing with highly bookish variety (view the table above by Dr. L. Kip Wheeler).

Sometimes the term diatype is employed to describe the variation according to use, especially the one which is determined by its social purpose. However, some scholars amit that the distinction between dialect and diatype is not always clear; in some cases a language variety may be understood as both a dialect and a diatype.