Notional Changes In Communicative Registers Within A Text

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine what register components organized within complete parts of the text are substituting with register banks, to specify patterns of communicative registers within a bank, issues of changes of one register to another, creating possible register models of small text-pragmatic units, including patterns of complex syntactic units and paragraphs. At first, some information about a concept of a communicative register is given, five registers determined by G.A. Zolotova – reproductive, informative, generative, intentional and reactional are described. Basing on the semantic definition of the register in a predicative minimal speech act, mechanisms of complex syntactic coherence and paragraph segmentation have been determined as well as a paragraph segmentation in relation to registers. Coherent text fragments from “For whom the bell tolls” by E. Hemingway were the material for segmentation. During segmentation, the type of the communicative register has been determined basing on its semantics. In the study, the attitude of the speaker and an addressee to the speech content is determined. Proximity, similarity and differentiation, variation of the communicative registers during the semantic segmentation of the sentences in the paragraph or a part of the text are commented on. The study shows that the communicative registers are ranged in a certain order within a paragraph. One paragraph can be a consequence of different registers at the same time, the same paragraph can be a unity of different communicative registers.

Keywords: Textparagraphregister bankcommunicative registerspeech ac

Introduction

The category of the communicative register in linguistics is grammar and function determining the type of information given in the text. This category introduced by G.А. Zolotova demonstrates a new approach to text organization. A text can include five text registers (reproductive, informative, generative, intentional and reactive). A text can incorporate one, several or all communicative registers. In a text with several or all registers they are ranged, replaced or change their place. This aspect makes a process of register changes. Studying basic characteristics of a text communication and text organization provides the basis for studying changes between the registers. Studying the mechanism of a text organization depends on registers’ interaction. One of the aspects of studying register changes is a necessity to understand the relation between a language and semantics. The aspect, which makes this study more important, is a necessity to understand the relation between the linguistic means and semantics.

New information is transmitted by a certain sentence, statement, expression, text. Language status of a text in linguistics is still a controversy issue. However, the fact that a text is a linguistic phenomenon is indisputable. A word “text” as a concept is many-sided and this fact is manifested both in linguistic terminology and linguistic literature.

If we perceive a text via registers, it can be determined as their consequence. It proves importance and topicality of studying communicative registers in the text organization.

Problem Statement

The study deals with the concept of the communicative register, types of registers, determining registers in literature, creating the models of the communicative registers in a text.

Research Questions

The subject of this study is a text as a unity. A text is a highly organized dynamic communicative component of speech. In a literary text the author creates a hierarchy of communication and creates dynamic relations between the communicants. The general scheme of communicative relations in literature is as follows: the author/narrator – characters – readers. A literary text is coherent information about events in the real life or made up by the author. A text can start both with the author’s /narrator’s or character’s words. Enrichment and finishing the information base on predicative constructions. Within a text, a sentence has a function even of the smallest unit which expresses a final idea. Thus, a sentence is a basic and total unit of information transition. There are different types of sentences in a language, and information in every type of sentences has different characteristics. Semantics also reflects it. If we study a sentence from its semantic function in the system of communicative actions, we can find its different types. These variations do not always coincide with the grammatical types of sentences. This position is a basis for the register’s theory in the communicative grammar.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to determine peculiarities of a literary text organization as a sequence of registers, disclose regularities of lining, and register changes from the beginning of the text to its end.

Research Methods

The article uses a syntactic method of the compoition analysis, methods of the communicative grammar when defining and determining registers.

Findings

The theory of communicative registers bases on V.V. Vinogradov’s ideas. “The system of basic communicatively important tense-aspect functions developed by V.V. Vinogradov brought up an idea of the constitutive units of speech and a linguistic bases for further study of both speech genres and literary texts” (Nikitina, 2015, p. 150).

Zolotova (1988) classifies minimal syntactic units — syntaxeme as free derived and connected units, but notes that outside syntaxeme have greater functionality can be isolated, a structural element of the model (principal parts of a sentence), has a potential to broaden and complicate the sentence model, and can be a collocation component.

Locative (in the forest, in the field, in front of the window) and temporal (in May, in the afternoon, in the evening) syntaxemes are free syntaxeme. Derived syntaxemes function in certain sentence types. Their forms and meanings depend on a sentence type. Interconnected syntaxemes are in collocations (to read a book, to be interested in sport etc). Every syntaxeme has a key role in creating syntactic structures (Zolotova, 1988). In the communicative grammar, determining registers depends on sentence models and units used for sentence formation and other conditions and factors.

Predicativity is a necessary means for sentence formation. Most of the predicatives are formed from the verbs. The statistic analysis of the text predicatives on the level of sentences shows the importance of verbal predicates. It is true for all languages.

A concept of the communicative register is not connected with the ammount and number of predicative units. A communicative register is a model of reality perception and reflection. This model is shown in a predicative unit or a block of sentences.

Register types and their consequence in a text. Speech communicative registers are models of speech activity. Speech activity is determined by the speaker, his communicative intention and text units.

Inside the text a communicative register is a means of determining a syntactic composition and creating functional area of a linguistic unit in the language system.

Zolotova (2004) writes: “Communicative types or speech registers are determined as a concept, irrespective of the variety of the predicative units and their combinations, used in heterogenous social-communicative contexts, correlated and opposed features” (p. 21). The author determines five registers: 1) reproductive; 2) informative; 3) generative; 4) intentional; 5) reactional. The two types from these five – reproductive and informative - are divided into subtypes, which depend on dynamism and a static character of the predicate. When a predicate has a dynamic semantics there are reproductive-declarative and informative-declarative subtypes, depending on the static character of the predicate there are reproductive-descriptive and informative-descriptive subtypes.

The reproductive register translates information which a speacker percieves via senses. In the informative register the subject gives information which he knows or understands. The generative register gives information on certain universal knowledge, generalized in practice. The adressee of the intentional register depends on the content of the speech manipulation. The reactive register estimates events.

The study and analysis show that the communicative register suits the context. This fact is proved when choosing certain communicative registers from the text for their comparison with the context. This feature can determine a characteristic of the amount of the communicative registers, determine the limits of every communicative register and transitory points of changing one register into another.

A text is characterized by changes for units of any reproductive, informative, generative, intentional and reactional registers. A minimal amount of the speech unit which is a certain register is limited by a predicative unit. It does not need the register change. A consequent predicative unit determines the amount of the further speech block and the register itself. When a communicative act lasts, there is a consequent connection of the predicative units. Depending on the predicate type, this creates register consequence. Here the registers have no predetermined or identified consequence. Every text and its unit (a fragment, context, and paragraph) is a certain register consequence.

It is possible that when close to each other both registers are of a similar type. It is possible when there are two and more registers. Thus, we can say about the repetition of the same register in the text. At the same time, other register can disturb the consequence. We can determine the differential register consequence.

There are three grammar means in thecommunicative grammar: 1) the model of the subjective speech statement; 2) the concept of the communicative register; 3) taxis; the mechanism of inter-predicative relations in the text. When studying a certain statement all three means are used, we can name a relation of the statement with the communicative registers (Sidorova, 2015). The relation of the statement to the speaker, and subject perspective and relation between the statements are determined by the taxis theory.

A model of a subject perception is an axis, which connects five subject fields. Interconnection of these five fields forms discourse and explains its activity in the text. The idea of subjective perspectives allows interpreting grammar objects from the point of view of a speaker, in other words, provides an anthropocentric approach to the text and grammar systems.

Register banks of a text. It is known that register banks in the text are interconnected and have cohesion. It allows determining pecularities, succession of communication and the semantic dependance of the communicative means in text organisation. This makes important the analysis of certain text registers. We have determined the semantic relations between the registers within a certain text — “For whom the bells tolls” by E. Hemingway.

“He lay flat on the brown, pine needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees. The mountainside sloped gently where he lay; but below it was steep and he could see the dark of the oiled road winding through the pass. There was a stream alongside the road and far down the pass he saw a mill beside the stream and the falling water of the dam, white in the summer sunlight” (Hemingway, 2012, para. 4).

This part consists of three complex sentences and makes the first paragraph of the text. The narrator tells what he percieves, uses linguistic means to verbalize what he sees. These registers use such modes as “I see …”, “I hear …”, “I feel …”. Further observation is specified with the semantic connection between the statements and duration of the description in the analogous form. In statements “ he could see”, “he saw a mill” , in the second and third sentences the verb “see” proves what the narrator sees. That is why the sentences of the first paragraph are reproductive registers. If we denote these registers as REP, than the first paragraph can be represented as: REP₁ + REP₂ + REP₃. The first reproductive register tells where and how the subject was lying. REP₁ finishes REP₂, by “ where he lay ”. The statement “ He lay ”, in the first register, is repeated in the second in the form “ where he lay ” providing the semantic connection between the senences.

The paragraph is added by the information given by the speaker. In this example the first paragraph ends with the information about what the adresee had seen. Thus, a paragraph finishes as a complex syntactic unit.

A dialogue between two subjects follows this part of the text. The first two utterances are reactive registers (RR). They denote reaction of estimating the situation. If an utterance of the first subject includes the object estimation, which the subject sees, the second participant of the dialogue proves the statement of the first.

"Is that the mill?" he asked

"Yes."

These two utterances are united as two reactive registers: RR₁+RR₂. The information about the object is not complete here. Further, in the context the semantic characteristics of the utterances change. Further two utterances exchange the information.

"I do not remember it."

"It was built since you were here. The old mill is farther down; much below the pass." (Hemingway, 2012, para. 6).

The utterances change into the informative registers (İR), and the following model of the structure appear IR₁ + IR₂.

“He spread the photo stated military map out on the forest floor and looked at it carefully. The old man looked over his shoulder. He was a short and solid old man in a black peasant's smock and gray iron-stiff trousers and he wore rope-soled shoes. He was breathing heavily from the climb and his hand rested on one of the two heavy packs they had been carrying” (Hemingway, 2012, para. 8).

The following paragraph includes the information on what the speaker have seen or heard. The information given was perceived by senses. All three sentences in this paragraph are registers REP (REP₄ +REP₅ + REP₆).

Further sentences of the dialogue form register RR. Here the estimation of the situation dominates. The second, third sentences of the second speaker as well as further utterances are the informative register.

"Then you cannot see the bridge from here."

"No," the old man said. This is the easy country of the pass where the stream flows gently.

Below, where the road turns out of sight in the trees, it drops suddenly and there is a steep gorge"

"I remember."

"Across this gorge is the bridge."

"And where are their posts?"

"There is a post at the mill that you see there" (Hemingway, 2012, para. 9).

The registers consequence in this part of the text can be denoted as:

RR₃ +RR₄;

I₁ + I ₂ + I₃ + I₄ + I₅

“The young man, who was studying the country, took his glasse from the pocket of his faded, khaki flannel shirt, wiped the lenses with a handkerchief, screwed the eyepieces around until the boards of the mill showed suddenly clearly and he saw the wooden bench beside the door; the huge pile of sawdust that rose behind the open shed where the circular saw was, and a stretch of the flume that brought the logs down from the mountainside on the other bank of the stream” (Hemingway, 2012, para. 17).

This paragraph as a scomplex sentence forms a complex syntactic unity and the reproductive register on the whole.

The internal difference between the registers directly depend on how they have been denoted. The information on the event description differs in the reproductive and descriptive registers. Besides, the information in the registers can be generalized when rendered by the speaker; it can contain adressing in the form of orders, wish, inquiries, announcements, disagreements, emotions and so on. These data can generalize or enrich the registers. This observes the common principles of registers differentiation. Invariant meaning of every register is a basis and it is taken into account when comparing them.

Registers are fulfilled by certain utterances within a text or text parts (Zolotova, 2004).

The study shows that in descriptive texts the blocks can be large. In the registers of these blocks, there is a certain variety.

The informant must be connected with the information given when determining the register. For example, if a speaker refers to the known information it is the informative register (Sidorova, 2002). If the speaker tells about the event seen it is the reproductive register. As a rule, the same registers are ranged as they contain the same amount of information from the point of view of the speakers’ reaction to the event.

As a rule, one and the same registers successively interchange as they contain similar ammount of information from the point of view of the speaker’s reaction o the event. Hence, a complex sentence can contain information about the known event (the informative register) the observed event (the reproductive register). The same can be said about the consequence of different registers in one sentence. The main fact is that a complex sentence tends to the consequence of the same registers.

When dealing with a text from the point of view of the register, the register banks corresponding to the whole paragraph can be denoted as a semantic bank. It makes possible to study the paragraphs as a bank of the communicative registers and segment them on the level of the events (Stutterheim, Carroll, Flecken, & Schmiédtova, 2012; Athanosopoulos & Bylund, 2013).

Studying the register banks at the level of a paragraph allows determining their different models. This approach allows specifying what models of register banks the text includes. As the text increases a number of different bank models increases as well.

Let us build the paragrph banks basing on the examples cited above from the E. Hemingway’s (2012) work.

I paragraph – I register bank: REP1 + REP2 + REP3

Two utterances of the first dialogue: RR1+RR2

Next utterances of the first dialogue: İR1 + İR2

The paragraph after the dialogue: REP4 +REP5 + REP6

II dialogue: RR3 +RR4; IR3 + IR4 + IR5 + IR6 + IR7

If a dialogue is one paragraph than it includes 4 paragraphs and 4 register banks and every bank is identical to a certain model.

I paragraph – I register bank: REP1 + REP2 + REP3

II paragraph (I dialogue) – II register bank: RR1+RR2 → İR1 + İR2

III paragraph: – III register bank: REP4 +REP5 + REP6

IV paragraph (II dialogue) – IV register bank: RR3 +RR4 → IR3 + IR4 + IR5 + IR6 + IR7

Thus, when modelling a text we can determine different and identical models of register banks within one text. Analyzing the models given above we can see that the models suiting the banks of I and III registers are similar. In other words, the consequence of similar (reproductive) registers forms the banks. Informations given in this bank reflected in reproductive registers are different. The sign “→” in the models of register banks denotes a register change. For example, there is a change into the informative register in the second bank. These changes can be in different banks.

Conclusion

Depending on the text size it can include different ammount of registers. Every rgister bases on a sentence or uterance in the text, it preliminary definition is a primary condition. Registers are structured in the text. The sequence of the same registers is possible; the same registers can substutute each other even within one paragraph.

The sequence of the registers within a paragraph or text forms a bank of registers. In exceptional cases the number of register banks in the text corresponds to the number of paragraphs. When a dialogue is a part of the text then in this case it forms a unified register bank. Inside the register bank there may be a change of registers from one into another. A number of register bank within a paragraph can vary depending on the text volume.

References

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