What Is Register in Translation?
Register is the variety of language a speaker or writer chooses for a particular situation. In translation, register is the single most important property of the source text. Get it wrong and even a grammatically perfect translation will feel like the wrong document.
The three variables (Halliday 1978)
- Field: what the text is about, including its subject matter and domain.
- Tenor: the relationship between writer and reader, including power, distance, and formality.
- Mode: the channel of communication, including spoken vs written, prepared vs spontaneous, and the role language plays in the situation.
Why this matters before you pick a translation framework
Every framework in translation studies (Skopos, Newmark Semantic and Communicative, Venuti Foreignization and Domestication, Nord Functionalist, House, Koller) makes different trade-offs against Field, Tenor, and Mode. A literary novel translated under a technical-manual register reads as flat. A safety manual translated under a literary register reads as dangerous.
Further reading: the 8 frameworks explained, choose a model and framework, how the workflow uses register.