Linguistic variation across texts: the role of register, intra-register communicative distinctions, social group, and individual differences

Gracheva, Marianna Olegovna (2023) Linguistic variation across texts: the role of register, intra-register communicative distinctions, social group, and individual differences. Doctoral thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

Language variation is attributed to a variety of factors – linguistic and various nonlinguistic or external constraints determining language use. These external factors have been commonly classified as characteristics of language users and factors associated with the situation of use (e.g., Halliday, 1978). User characteristics have been the subject of sociolinguistic research, concerned with variation predicted by group membership on the basis of such factors as age, gender, region, ethnicity, educational or occupational background. Other fields of linguistics, such as idiolectal sociolinguistics, are also concerned with characteristics of the users, but these characteristics are individual rather than indicative of group affiliation.On the other hand, in the research tradition focused on considerations of use, linguistic variation is explained by the fact that language is always produced in response to a particular communicative situation, and linguistic variation corresponds to situational differences. In the text-linguistic school of thought, linguistic variation has been traditionally attributed to the fact that texts belong to ‘registers’, culturally-recognized language varieties “associated with the situation of use” (Biber & Conrad, 2019, p. 6). On the other hand, it has been recognized that registers are not situationally uniform, but rather exhibit substantial internal variation across texts or even within texts. An additional consideration in linguistic variation according to the situation of use has therefore involved granular communicative differences within registers, shown to explain additional linguistic variation, previously unaccounted for by existing register categories. (e.g., Biber, Egbert, & Keller, 2020; Egbert & Gracheva, 2023). This dissertation examines the interactions that may exist between these distinct approaches to linguistic variation and investigates social group (age and gender), register, and individual speaker characteristics as predictors of functional linguistic variation in the ‘Corpus of 100 Idiolects’, comprised by 7 registers produced by 112 speakers from a range of social backgrounds. The goals of the study include (1) identifying underlying dimensions of functional linguistic variation in the corpus; (2) measuring the contribution of each predictor variable to functional linguistic variation; (3) providing accounts of language use by age and gender groups within and across registers; (4) accounting for possible communicative distinctions within registers; (5) analyzing individual authors across registers. The study produces several key findings. First, social and individual characteristics do not contribute to explaining functional linguistic variation across texts, while the contribution of register is major. Second, as social groups are examined across registers, it is revealed that register is a significant predictor of variation for all groups, and age and gender groups generally follow the same cross-register patterns. When social groups are examined within registers, it is shown that age and gender do not predict register-internal variation, but each social group varies extensively within its scope. Third, as variation within registers is explored further, the study finds that this linguistic variation is systematically explained by highly granular communicative distinctions across texts. Finally, the study demonstrates how analysis of individual language use is enhanced through an account of authors’ approaches to a range of registers that allow varying degrees of internal linguistic freedom.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Linguistic variation; language variation
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited:	02 May 2025 21:38
Last Modified:	02 May 2025 21:38
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6119

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