REGISTER SHIFTS AND INSTITUTIONAL TALK IN A RURAL COMMUNITY: A REGISTER AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SHIRLEY 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 applied-linguistic 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.