Paul and Pseudepigraphy (Pauline Studies, Book 8)

128 andrew w. pitts

With halliday’s semantic realizations of the metafunctions of register, we

can measure stylistic shift or language variation. this combined model

allows us to measure how a particular author (Paul) aims his language in

response to situational shifts, summarized through a Bell-halliday-Biber

register profile comparison landscape.

the above display attempts to situate Bell’s three levels of linguistic

variation against Biber’s situational components, organized according to

halliday’s register metafunctions. thus, we can track and compare social

variation along the contextual and temporal axis of social change (Bell) as

part of a wider phenomenon within register variation (halliday) through

formal situational components (Biber). to model Bell’s second- and third-

level diachronic linguistic development, we need to construct (1) a timeline

for the addressor that can track his temporal location within varying social

figure 2 comparative register profile landscape with formal situational parameters.