Register
One important quality of writing we are working to distinguish is the varieties of register in writing and/or reading. Register is a term used in musicology to mean a range of notes an instrument can play, except that here we are looking at register within language use, and especially within performances of writing and reading. For instance, the spectrum from the concrete to the abstract and all steps in between would constitute an "octave," and so would other registers that constantly are at play.
I suggest that the practice of distinguishing register at work in a given text would also allow us to distinguish how we project and perform with a particular register whenever we read or listen, and of course, write. |
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I have adapted the following four registers (ranges) of language use from Tzvetan Todorov's Introduction to Poetics, pages 21-26:
The first register is “concrete versus/and abstract” language. At one end of the spectrum of this register, concrete language use calls for very precise particularities. At the other end of the spectrum we find wide generalities that often lack any real content.
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The second register is “figural versus/and transparent” language. This is where we begin to shift from purely concrete language, which is transparent to the "things-themselves," and pivot to figurative language, which draws attention to itself through employing metaphor, metonymy, and “shapely” sentences.
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The third register is “monovalency versus/and polyvalency” in language use. Valency is any reference to texts or ideas outside the text you are writing. Monovalency involves little reference outside the text, and polyvalency involves several--if not a multitude of--references. Monovalency does not require as much work on the part of your reader, but polyvalency does, as it asks that your reader be familiar with all the hints and references to various items not explicitly mentioned in your text. For instance, “parody” involves polyvalency as it calls upon the reader to be familiar with what is being parodied to get the joke.
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The fourth and last register is the "degree of subjectivity" (or to keep things parallel, subjectivity versus/and objectivity) present within the language. At one end of the spectrum is the lyric, which is deeply personal (first person), reflective and figural song, and at the other we have the dramatic or epic forms (third person) where there the subjectivity of the speaker is entirely absent except in the form of the characters playing out roles that cannot be confused with the subjective voice of the author.
Read this brief essay by Sue William Silverman, "Innocence & Experience: Voice in Creative Nonfiction," to help deepen your understanding of this register.
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Other Registers
There are other registers beyond these four. For instance:
A fifth register could be called "fragmentary versus/and integral" writing, or the different versus/and the similar.
One issue to explore here is the degree to which the writing possesses explicit or implicit cohesion and coherence (see Williams' book Style). The more fragmentary the text, the more the text possesses implicit cohesion and coherence. At this end of the register, the reader must supply the background context in order to articulate meaning and bring integrity to a given fragmentary text.
On the other hand, the more integral the text, the more the text possesses explicit cohesion and coherence. At this end of the register, the text seems to supply the background context, allowing the reader grasp the integrity of a given piece of writing.
This register easily overlaps with other registers, for instance, "monovalency versus polyvalency." The more monovalent the text is, the more integral the text would appear to be, and so the less demand on the reader to bring coherence to the text. However, the more fragmentary the text the more likely the background context (what unites the fragments) will be missing, or will seem to exist outside the text: hence the more polyvalent the text is.
Keep in mind that when you write or evaluate writing, any position along the range of a given register has its value while at the same time poses a problem. It is important to examine both aspects of each register in a given piece of writing.
Read Jason Helms web text on "Vorhandenheit," which means "present-at-hand," when we become aware of ourselves, our tools, and the world in moments of breakdown.
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And yet another register, important for our inquiry, is the "immediate versus/and the hypermediate."
What is important here is that technology, what we use to get things done, especially writing technologies, are at first hypermediate, that is, we notice the technology because it exists for us as a breakdown.
However, after we work with the tool (fix it, create it, work with what we have, etc.), eventually the technology disappears, it becomes transparent, or immediate.
This register overlaps quite a bit with the “figural versus/and transparent” register.
From Jay David Bolter's book Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. page 23.
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