The Difference Between Context And Register

		POTENTIAL	SUBPOTENTIAL	INSTANCE
CONTEXT	as	culture	subculture = situation type	situation
realised by		realised by	realised by	realised by
LANGUAGE	as	system	register = text type	text

Context and register have different locations in the theoretical architecture of SFL.

Context is a level of symbolic abstraction above language.  Its cline of instantiation extends from culture (potential) to situation (instance).

Register is a functional variety of language, which means:

• register is a point (of variation) on the cline of instantiation of language (not of context);
• register is at a lower level of symbolic abstraction than context.

Registers are varying subpotentials of language (text types) that realise varying subpotentials of context (situation types).


The confusion of context and register is widespread in the discourse of SFL.