Language Register
In linguistics, the Language Register is the subset of a language used in a particular social context.
For example someone might say I never done nuffin' when talking to their friends, but when presented before the Queen they may well change the way they speak and say I have never done anything in order to sound more "posh". Likewise, a barrister will use a certain set of vocabulary in their formal work in court and a completely different set of vocabulary when explaining the same case to their lay friends in an informal setting.
Having said this, there are no discrete registers as such. The diagram here shows how registers relate to each other where they overlap.
Correctness
No register is right or wrong per se. What determines this is how appropriate the language used is in a certain situation.
Suppose as a teacher a student asks about the meaning of the word cop. It is simple to explain that the meaning is police officer but it is used in certain situations or as part of a certain register. An individual might refer to a police officer whilst giving a formal statement to the police: Three police officers arrived in a car ten minutes later.
However, later when speaking to their friends, the same individual might say: Three cops turned up in their car ten minutes later.
Thus, register depends on:
- appropriateness
- context
- the speaker's status
- the listener's status
