Sharp PW-E310 operation manual Register standard vs informal and regional English, World English

Register: standard vs informal and regional English

Informal usage is more prevalent than it was a few years ago. Even in quite formal contexts, people may be heard using slang expressions, while the use of swear words and taboo words is on the increase. Taboos generally are weakening, though more so in Australia, where bastard is almost equivalent to British chap, and less so in the USA, where taboos are still strong in southern States such as Texas. This thesaurus contains a rich selection of informal and rude synonyms for more formal expressions. Users who wish to avoid offensive words may treat the restrictive labels as warning notices.

Most of the synonyms given are, of course, part of standard English; that is, they are in normal use in both speech and writing everywhere in the world, at many different levels of formality, ranging from official documents to casual conversation. These general synonyms are given first in each synonym set. Some words, however, are appropriate only in particular contexts, and these are placed after the standard expressions and labelled accordingly. The technical term for these differences in levels of usage is 'register'. The main register labels used in this thesaurus are the following:

informal: normally only used in contexts such as conversations or letters between friends, e.g. swig as a synonym for drink.

vulgar slang: informal language that may cause offence, usually because it refers to bodily functions.

formal: normally only used in writing, in contexts such as official documents, e.g. dwelling as a synonym for home.

technical: normally only used in technical and specialist language, though not necessarily restricted to any specific field, e.g. littoral as a synonym for beach. Words used in specific fields are given appropriate labels, e.g. medicine, Christianity.

poetic/literary: found only or mainly in poetry or in literature written in an 'elevated' style, e.g. ambrosial as a synonym for delicious.

dated: still used, but normally only by the older generation, e.g. measure one's length as a synonym for fall down.

historical: still used today, but only to refer to some practice or article that is no longer part of the modern world, e.g. crinoline as a synonym for petticoat.

humorous: used with the intention of sounding funny or playful, e.g. termino- logical inexactitude as a synonym for lie.

archaic: very old-fashioned language, not in ordinary use at all today, but sometimes used to give a deliberately old-fashioned effect or found in works of the past that are still widely read, e.g. aliment as a synonym for food.

rare: not in common use, e.g. acclivitous as a synonym for steep.

World English

It is an oft-repeated truism that English is now a world language. In this thesaurus, particular care has been taken to include synonyms from every variety of English, not just British, and when these are exclusively or very strongly associated with a region of the world they are labelled as such.

The main regional standards are British (abbreviated to <Brit.>), North American (<N. Amer.>), Australian and New Zealand (<Austral./NZ>), South African (<S. African>), Indian (in the sense of the variety of English found throughout the subcontinent), and West Indian (<W. Indian>). Only if the distinction is very clear is any finer labelling used, as with beer parlour, a Canadian synonym for bar.

Scottish, Irish, and Northern English are varieties within the British Isles containing distinctive vocabulary items of their own. The main synonyms found as regional terms of this kind are listed here and labelled accordingly.

The term for something found mainly or only in a particular country or region (although it may be mentioned in any variety of English) is identified by an indication such as '<<in France>>'. An example is gîte (as a synonym for cottage).

Many regionally restricted terms are informal, rather than being part of the standard language. Writers in the northern hemisphere in search of local colour may be delighted to learn that an Australian synonym for sordid is scungy, while Australian writers may find it equally useful to be given the equivalent terms in Britain, manky and grotty.

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