I found this article enlightening; an example of where a little formalism/structure (in the notion of the four registers) really helps identify the missing pieces in the wider picture.
I did find the use of the term "register" slightly jarring given its somewhat overloaded nature between its natural language meaning, used here, and also the sense of "a specific place in which to store a datum". Reading the Wikipedia page on the term, I came across "diatype", which to me seemed to convey the same meaning without the potential confusion from the polysemantics of "register"...?
I did find the use of the term "register" slightly jarring given its somewhat overloaded nature between its natural language meaning, used here, and also the sense of "a specific place in which to store a datum". Reading the Wikipedia page on the term, I came across "diatype", which to me seemed to convey the same meaning without the potential confusion from the polysemantics of "register"...?