What is Register?

Register in the linguistic sense is the style of language that is appropriate in a particular situation. Each and every person uses different registers in their lives, and often we do not even have to think about it. After all, it seems perfectly logical to use different words and grammar when writing a letter to a friend, a job application or when talking to a university professor.

Register affects grammar and style as well as word choice. Some words, for instance, can be categorized as informal, neutral or formal. For example, the words kids (informal), children (neutral) and offspring (formal) refer to the same people, but set up a different general atmosphere for the conversation.

For language students in particular, it is highly important to study the register of new words, since people are usually expected to use the correct register in each situation. Mixing registers or choosing the wrong register might result in amusement, confusion or, in the worst case, misunderstandings and offense.

I found two examples which illustrate the importance of register fairly well.

The first video shows a scene from the movie “My Fair Lady” (starring Audrey Hepburn). The plot is about the young Cockney flower girl Eliza. One day she meets the phonetics professor Higgins, who is disgusted by her accent and declares, he can turn her into a lady by teaching her how to “speak properly”. In the scene I chose Higgins takes Eliza to a horse race in Ascot. He has already taught her polite manners, how to pronounce English perfectly and bought her a beautiful dress, but the words she uses and the topics she talks about give her away and let the members of high society know that she is not one of them.   

In this clip from the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” Will Smith has an interview for Princeton University. However, he is not really interested in going to Princeton and therefore simply acts naturally. Whereas the representative of Princeton University uses very formal English, Will talks to him as he would talk to a friend, rather than to an authority.