Note‐taking English as a simplified register

Empirical investigation of the variety of English used in note‐taking reveals this form of language to be a simplified register characterized by many of the same simplifying processes that are found in baby talk (BT) and foreigner talk (FT). The English note‐taking register (NT) is, however, distinguished from BT and FT both by having a number of reduction processes unique to it and by lacking entirely the clarifying, upgrading, and expressive processes in them. A study of the (semi‐) sentences in notes of university lectures by seven subjects identified the following 10 features: abbreviation/symbolization; omission of articles; omission of pronouns; omission of interrogative‐auxiliary do; omission of finite copulas; omission of phrases or other multiword groups; amalgamation of two or more sentences into a single topic + comment structure; participialization of relative clauses; nominalization; and passivization. The motivation for this combination of simplificational properties in NT derives from the d...