T e x t r e g i s t e r i n t r a n s l a t i o n1

Does your own language signal the different thrust emerging from a text such
as that of the Dean? Are there specific devices for conveying detachment?
Our concern with text type in Unit 9 led us to consider this unit of interaction from
two distinct yet related perspectives. In the present unit,we covered the first of these
perspectives:t extual registers. This is seen in terms of linguistic variation giving rise
to dialects as a reflection of the language user’s geographical, historical and social
provenance.What is perhaps more significant is that register variation can also be
viewed from a language use vantage point.Here,we need to account for such aspects
of the way language varies as field (involving both subject matter and social
institutions served), tenor, catering for formality or informality and the way this
gives rise to complex relationships of power and solidarity, and mode, covering the
cohesion and coherence of texts. Text types, then, are recognized in terms of the
context of situation and the register employed. In Unit 11 we turn to a different
perspective and examine how translation shifts can occur in related areas of text,
genre and discourse