Register, Genre, and Style: (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

This book describes the most important kinds of texts in English and introduces the methodological techniques used to analyse them. Three analytical approaches are introduced and compared, describing a wide range of texts from the perspectives of register, genre and style. The primary focus of the book is on the analysis of registers. Part 1 introduces an analytical framework for studying registers, genre conventions, and styles. Part 2 provides detailed descriptions of particular text varieties in English, including spoken interpersonal varieties (conversation, university office hours, service encounters), written varieties (newspapers, academic prose, fiction), and emerging electronic varieties (e-mail, internet forums, text messages). Finally, Part 3 introduces advanced analytical approaches using corpora, and discusses theoretical concerns, such as the place of register studies in linguistics, and practical applications of register analysis. Each chapter ends with three types of activities: reflection and review activities, analysis activities, and larger project ideas.

Table of Contents:
1. Registers, genres, and styles: fundamental varieties of language; Part I. Analytical Framework: 2. Describing the situational characteristics of registers and genres; 3. Analysing linguistic features and their functions; Part II. Detailed Descriptions of Register, Genre and Style: 4. Interpersonal spoken registers; 5. Written registers, genres and styles; 6. Historical evolution of registers, genres and styles; 7. Registers and genres in electronic communication; Part III. Larger Theoretical Issues: 8. Multidimensional patterns of register variation; 9. Register studies in context; Appendix A. Annotation of major register/genre studies; Appendix B. Activity texts; References.

About the Author :
Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor of Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. He has worked in Kenya and Somalia, and has been a visiting professor at several universities, including the University of Uppsala, University of Helsinki, University of Zurich, the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, and the Norwegian Academy of Arts and Sciences. His previous books include Variation across Speech and Writing, Dimensions of Register Variation, Corpus Linguistics, The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, and Discourse on the Move. Susan Conrad is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University. She has worked in Southern Africa and Korea, and conducted workshops on discourse analysis and corpus linguistics in Europe, South America, and Thailand. Her previous books include Corpus Linguistics, The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, and The Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.

Review :
'A recent addition to the series Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, Biber and Conrad's Register, Genre, and Style introduces methodological techniques for analysing text varieties in English. With practical analytical frameworks and thoroughly illustrated examples, this book provides an accessible and generalized treatment of register/genre/style analyses to senior undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics and related fields. There is every prospect that this book will become a standard text for students and scholars studying register/genre analysis for the first time.' Discourse Studies ' … a remarkably accessible and comprehensive book, which will also be appropriate for more advanced students, as well as for scholars from a range of areas who may be looking for a state of the art but practical introduction to empirical research on register, genre and style.' The Journal of English Language and Linguistics