Up
until recently I have always taken my everyday interactions for granted, I
never knew the constant powerful theories and concepts that were at play during
my seemingly simple conversations. The most complicated I’ve ever had the
luxury to think of my everyday conversations was to look for physical and
verbal queues all throughout the conversations. I never had any idea of
register, tenor, field, mode and the other communication ‘devices.’
Register and style of speech is something
we all use, for the sake of arranging our text/speech in a way appropriate for
the particular context. For example, I would not walk up to my professor and
hold a fist up and exclaim; “Wusup dude?” No, definitely not, for that sort of
greeting is only appropriate among your closest friends, and even then you are
still at a risk of sounding like a babbling buffoon. If I were to sum it up,
HOW communication is executed, changes along with WHAT the topic being
communicated is, and to WHOM it is directed to. In the example of my Professor,
a friendly “Hello, how do you do?” goes much further than a “Sup pops?”
Call me a dork, but I just find it
so extremely exciting just to have the knowledge of how register and style
changes our perception and even social standing among our group of friends.
Thinking back, there have always been people who loved joking around, whereas
there are serious people. In a cognitive sense, their brain must have a preset
register and style. Luckily for my endless interest, register and style do not
limit themselves to verbal communication, but also textual.
Semiotic register is relevant to
typeface communication, in which design elements in the text contribute to
register, including our font, color, and layout. I’m sure we have all had that
moment when we enter an unknown webpage only to quickly backtrack out of it due
to the lack of vision appeal. For me, the font is a real killer; nothing screams
PROFESSIONAL more than adept use of comic
sans!
Stay
tuned for next blog folks! I will be reviewing a blog by applying previously
discussed concepts and more!~ Good day, and until next time!
