Introducing English Linguistics

Unity of structure
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INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

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That will be [gives cost] followed by, for instance, some kind of salutation.
The language may vary from what is given above, but the point is that
speakers know the routine – it is a kind of ritual – and go through each
stage of it every time this type of business transaction takes place.
Spontaneous dialogues, in contrast, are one of the more loosely organ-
ized registers. However, they do have structure, as Halliday and Hasan
(1985: 40) note: they are “never totally open-ended ... [but possess] strate-
gies and styles of meaning.” Speakers can, for instance, change topics
rather suddenly, or overlap their speech with the speech of those with
whom they are communicating. But this does not mean that conversation
is without structure: spontaneous dialogues have a flexible but dis-
cernible hierarchical structure, and conventions for determining how and
when speakers take turns speaking.
To illustrate how registers vary in unity of structure, this section
describes two kinds of spoken texts – spontaneous dialogues and tele-
phone conversations – and one sub-register of journalistic prose: press
reportage.