THE ELEMENTS, VOCABULARY AND REGISTER OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

The Register of Business Communication
The Penguin Encyclopedia (Crystal, 2004:1289) defines register as “a variety of language defined by the social context in which it is deemed appropriate for use, such as religion, law, science, advertising, journalism or conversation [and, for our purpose here, business]”. The encyclopedia adds that “each register can be identified by a range of linguistic features which together distinguish it from other registers in the language”.
Similarly, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (Chalker & Weiner, 1998, 1994:340) defines register as “a variety of language used in particular circumstances”. Pointing out that the concept may be used in different ways by different linguists, the dictionary offers two of such different ways, the following of which is most appropriate for our purpose here: “a variety of language related to a particular FIELD OF DISCOURSE (emphasis, the authors’), a particular subject or occupation, e.g., advertising language or the language of the law”.
Registers are not synonymous with vocabulary because, while vocabulary refers to all the words of a language, register denotes the particular words in a language which carry meanings recognised by professionals in an area or field of operation in a society in which that language is used.
So, we can see that register is the term which we use for describing that attribute of English that while certain words are used commonly by all people who speak and write the language, other words are specially associated with particular subject matter, professions, activities, and so on. Thus, we can speak of the common register of English (which embraces all the words which we commonly employ in most of the day-to-day business of our lives) and of the special registers of the many specialised areas or interests of our lives. We can easily give examples of specialised registers.

For our purpose in this article, we shall merely introduce the idea of registers since knowledge of the complex details is really not necessary for most purposes of effective practical business communication. However, it is important that we note from the onset the following points about registers:-
(i) They are somewhat infinite in the English Language because, within any one subject, there are innumerable divisions. Take the subjects of law, medicine and sports as examples. Each of them divides up into several more specialised sub-areas. In law, for example, there are terms specially associated with the courts, such as the Clerk of the Court, the dock, the witness box, the plaintiff, the respondent, etc.; in the practice of law itself, you will have heard of the bar, the bench, affidavit, bona fide, corpus habeas, etc. So also do you have special terms associated with the judges and magistrates who preside over court sessions and adjudicate over cases, and with the lawyers who may be prosecutors representing government in court, or counsel representing plaintiffs, defendants and accused persons. There are several other terms associated with the subject of law. Each of medicine and sports has even more terms of its own than law; also, any other subject you can think of (such as business, technology) and the various sciences similarly have numerous special terms.
(ii) People wonder whether, when we speak of the English register of a subject, we mean the technical terms used in that subject. My answer is, as some people say, “Yes and No”. Consider, for example, the two terms, operation and appendicectomy, which are associated with a surgeon, that is, a doctor who performs operations in a hospital. Now, while both words belong to the register of medicine as a whole, and to surgery in particular, operation is a common word which everybody knows or ought to know, while appendicectomy is a technical term which all doctors (and surgeons in particular) use for describing a particular kind of operation. A lay person in medicine would not understand the term unless a medical person, such as a doctor or a nurse,
explained it to him or he looked it up in a dictionary, preferably in a medical dictionary.

Technical terms have this character that they represent large ideas and actions which would be too cumbersome to convey by a full description every time we want to refer to them in our writing and conversation. So, one can now see why I said “yes” and “no”; “yes” because appendicectomy is a technical term, while operation is not.
Now, if I asked you whether one would regard such a word as “metaphor” (which we saw before) is a technical term, what would you say? Similarly, I could ask you whether such words associated with the subject of philosophy as “idealism”, “existentialism”, and “epistemology” are technical terms. Obviously they are because they embody whole large ideas with which a lay person to literature or philosophy would not be familiar.
(iii) The third point which we should note in connection with English Registers is the relationship between Registers and Varieties of English, one aspect of the latter being “Status” of words. However, by “varieties”, we simply mean the different forms of English which, as may be suitable or necessary, one may speak or write on different occasions. These forms are broadly divisible into formal and informal English, the latter of which has such other varieties as informal written English, spoken or conversational English, colloquial English, dialect, patois (such as pidgin), slang, and so on. All we need to note here meanwhile is simply that registers are merely one kind of formal English. In other words, the special terms used in the discourse of different subjects are used by persons educated in those subjects for conveying their ideas in serious or formal writing and speaking. A book, A University Grammar of English, by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenboum (1979), gives a list on page 1 of the factors which determine varieties of English. One of these is “varieties according to subject”. This, indeed, is what we mean by English registers.

(iv) Finally, let us find out what our business (as people who use English in practical communication) is with registers. First, our primary concern is to increase our vocabulary of the common register, i.e., the vocabulary we need for interacting with all the people who come into our lives in the course of each day in the workplace, in the house, in the market, in the bus, along the road, at school, etc. Secondly, we need to master the vocabulary or register of our special subjects of interest or areas of operation (for our purpose here, business), so that we are able to talk to professional or occupational colleagues in language which carries
the most precise meanings for those trained in the subject. Those of us who are, for example, literary critics will need to understand those terms on the subject which we referred to earlier on and many more. So will those in business, law, architecture, medicine or any other subject need to know the terminologies of those fields of interest. Hence we can speak of the language of the lawyer or the economist, and so on. In this course, we are concerned with the case of business.
Thirdly, we need to have a mastering of the common terms of all trades and subjects, such as “operation” in medical vocabulary, so that we can understand specialists reasonably well when they speak to us. If an architect building a house for me tells me that he needs some materials for making the “lintels” and “decking” of my house, will I tell him that I do not understand what he means by “lintels” and “decking”?
Finally, even as specialists in different subjects, we must speak in language which a layman can understand. A specialist who cannot, when necessary, convey his ideas tin language which a layman can understand is either a very dull person or is simply showing off. If a doctor (to change focus a bit from our earlier statement) tells me that I am suffering from hepatitis and cannot tell me what this is supposed to mean in terms of the injury being done to my body, I will hardly have confidence in his ability to cure the disease.

Business English
One of the best sources for learning business communication and for imbibing the outlook which a person should have in a business environment is a book entitled English for Businessmen, written by Angela Mack who was a co-director of the International Language Centre at International House, Paris, France, and who also had a wide experience of teaching English to overseas students). It was published in London by Macdonald Futura Publishers Ltd. in association with the BBC as one of the books in the BBC’s series of publications on the teaching of English by example.
It is based on a fictional firm (a manufacturing one) to guide the reader through the many aspects of modern business. The author, besides her own knowledge of business, had to use an adviser on business practice in order to highlight all areas of activity in a business firm of the kind presented in the book. Each chapter of the book (chapters are actually designated Units) deals with a different department (24 in all) of the firm and brings out its characteristic words and phrases (emphasis mine) in a lively and interesting way. Perhaps quoting part of the blurb on the back cover of the book will give a clearer view of the contents of the book:
What vocabulary do you need when you’re negotiating export deals, auditing your accounts or setting up a pension fund? How do you reply to customers’ complaints, advertise for new personnel, interpret work study surveys? How do you cope with takeover, request an overdraft, plan any advertising campaign? All these situations in day-to-day business life needs a command of English and an understanding of concepts, nuances and conventions.