hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2026-02-24

■ #6147. 言語学用語としての register の初例 [register][terminology][sociolinguistics][oed][youtube][inohota][sociolinguistics]

　昨日の記事「#6146. いのほたで register を紹介しました」 ([2026-02-23-1]) に引き続き，register という用語について．言語学用語としての register の初例を調べるべく，OED に当たってみた．語義 II.9.c がそれに当たり，初出年は1956年とある．この語義の定義と例文をすべて OED から引用する．

II.9.c. Linguistics. In language: a variety or level of usage, esp. as determined by social context and characterized by the range of vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, etc., used by a speaker or writer in particular circumstances.

   1956 He will on different occasions speak (or write) differently according to what may roughly be described as different social situations: he will use a number of distinct 'registers'. (T. B. W. Reid in Archivum Linguisticum vol. 8 32)
   1962 Interference may..vary according to the social role of the speaker in any given case. This is what the Edinburgh School has called register. (Canadian Journal of Linguistics vol. 7 69)
   1966 Varieties of English distinguished by use in relation to social context are called registers. (G. N. Leech, English in Advertising vii. 68)
   1971 A novel, then, can be seen as an amalgam of registers within a wider register of literary endeavour. (P. Young in J. Spencer, English Language in West Africa 173)
   1972 Chaucer must therefore have used what was, for the London of his time, a more formal, possibly more archaic, register. (Notes & Queries December 446/2)
   1977 They are aware..of the idea of 'varieties' of English, and they probably know the term 'register'---a variety related to a particular use of the language, a particular subject or occupation. (P. Strevens, New Orientations in Teaching of English x. 119)
   1991 An unexpected bonus is a bilingual section on letter-writing in both formal and informal registers. (Times Educational Supplement 15 March 49/2)
   2004 This marker is very often used by Catalan speakers in colloquial register when the speech formality is low. (M. González, Pragmatic Markers in Oral Narr. vi. 224)

　初例の典拠となっている Reid の論文に当たってみると，次のようにあった (32) ．

Even if we possessed a separate repertory of utterances for each of the groups of speakers into which the French speech community must be divided, we should still be unable to establish a single linguistic system for any one group. For the linguistic behaviour of a given individual is by no means uniform; placed in what appear to be linguistically identical conditions, he will on different occasions speak (or write) differently according to what may roughly be described as different social situations: he will use a number of distinct "registers"[note 2]

note 2: cf. the levels of diction, indicated in the Report of the Commission set up by the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies quoted by Professor J. R. Firth in Transactions of the Philological Society. 1951, p.81.

　Reid (1901--81) はオックスフォード大学の教授で，ロマンス語学を専攻していた．引用注にもあるとおり，アイディア自体は Firth の "levels of diction" に遡るが，それを Reid が "register" と名付けなおしたということのようだ．その70年後に「いのほた」でも主題として取り上げられるほどに重要な用語に成長したことになる（cf. 「#404. エンレジスタメント（enregisterment・レジスター化）とレジスターーコンビニ敬語，ファミレス敬語を社会言語学から見ると？」）．

　・ Reid, T. B. W. "Linguistics, Structuralism and Philology." Archivum Linguisticum 8.1 (1956): 28--37.

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