Field, Tenor, Mode: Worked Examples
Halliday's three register variables (Field, Tenor, Mode) are the upstream step that lets a translator pick a framework with reasons rather than intuition. This guide walks three excerpts from different genres through the register analysis and out to a framework recommendation.
How to use this guide
For each excerpt, ask three questions: what is the text about (Field), who is writing to whom (Tenor), and what is the channel (Mode). The answers point to a framework from the 8 covered on the theory page.
Three excerpts, three frameworks
- Literary fiction: narrow Field, intimate Tenor, written-deliberated Mode. Newmark Semantic preserves voice.
- Technical manual: dense Field, high-power Tenor, instructional Mode. Newmark Communicative produces natural target-reader prose.
- Conversational interview: broad Field, peer Tenor, spoken-transcribed Mode. Skopos lets purpose drive register reshaping.
Further reading: register foundations, choose a model and framework.