PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

International amateur radio talk (IART) is describéd as a ‘clear case’ of the significance of the channel as a restrictive factor in discourse, and sample texts of IART are analyzed. The situation of IART and its subvarieties and neighboring varieties within a formal and functional ‘variety space’ is examined within a proposed theory of the use of speech. Language use is regarded as defined by a hierarchically organized set of constitutive factors, and purpose‐oriented aspects of language use are included by positing an ongoing adaptive process, the ‘functional cycle’. Three constitutive systems are defined: register, genre, and style. The claim is made that ‘language use is language variation’: The assignment of specific features to the factors of use defines a functional variety, and the continuous checking and logging of indexical values defines the ongoing adaptation of speech to context.