REGISTER SHIFTS AND INSTITUTIONAL TALK IN A RURALCOMMUNITY: A REGISTER AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OFSHIRLEY JACKSON’S “THE LOTTERY”

Abstract

This qualitative document-based study examines how language register shifts and institutional talk work
together to produce authority, compliance, and moral order in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The
Lottery.” Using a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) view of register (field, tenor, mode), supported by
conversation-analytic ideas about institutional interaction and a pragmatics view of ritual language, the
analysis tracks how villagers move from everyday neighbour talk to procedural, official talk and finally to
sanctioning talk that enables collective violence. The findings show three broad phases: (1) informal
village interaction dominated by casual evaluations and community small talk; (2) institutionalized
procedure marked by role-terms, directives, list-making, and routinized sequencing; and (3) a tightening
register where imperative-like moves, reduced mitigation, and group alignment accelerate action. Across
phases, the story portrays how institutional roles and ritual routines narrow speaker options, suppress
contestation, and reframe violence as “just the way things are done.” The study contributes an appliedlinguistic account of how register dynamics can be modelled in literary discourse, and how institutional
talk may emerge inside small communities without formal buildings or professional officials.