register n
1 see style
2a speech variety used by a particular group of people, usually sharing
the same occupation (e.g. doctors, lawyers) or the same interests (e.g.
stamp collectors, baseball fans). A particular register often distinguishes
itself from other registers by having a number of distinctive words, by
using words or phrases in a particular way (e.g. in tennis: deuce, love,
tramlines), and sometimes by special grammatical constructions (e.g.
legal language).
register tone n
another term for level tone
regression n
a backward movement of the eye along a line of print when reading. Poor
readers tend to make more regressions than good readers. In reading aloud,
a regression is the repetition of a syllable, word, or phrase that has already
been read.
regression analysis n
a statistical technique for estimating or predicting a value for a dependent
variable from a set ofindependent variables. For example, if a student
scored 60% on a test of reading comprehension and 70% in a grammar test
(the independent variables), regression analysis could be used to predict his
or her likely score on a test of language proficiency (the dependent variable).
When two or more independent variables are present, as in this example,
the statistical technique is called multiple regression.
regression hypothesis n
the idea that the order in which elements are lost in language loss is the
reverse of the order in which they were learned.
see also language attrition
regressive assimilation n
see assimilation
regular verb n
a verb which has the most typical forms in its language for grammatical cat-
egories such as tense or person. In written English regular verbs form the
past tense (a) by adding -ed to the verb base; walk 6 walked; (b) by adding
-d to the base; smile 6 smiled; (c) by changing -y 6 -ied; cry 6 cried. A verb
which does not have regular forms for tense, person, etc. is known as an
regular verb