In contradistinction to dialect, there are various differences in speech which are not held constant throughout a descriptive investigation. It may be possible to show, in many languages, that there are differences in style or fashion of speech, in respect to which whole utterances or even discourses are consistent. Thus we may not readily find an utterance which contains both 'good morning' and also 'good mornin’' or 'good evenin’', nor one containing a brighty and also sagacious. We may say that forms like 'good morning' and 'good mornin’' occur in different styles of speech, as do forms like a 'brighty' and 'sagacious'. These differences are usually distributional, since forms of different style do not generally occur with each other.
- Harris (1951), a pag.10

These styles may be related to various cultural and interpersonal situations. In addition to the examples discussed here, which border on social dialect difference, we could consider styles which mark particular speakers or socially differentiated groups of speakers (e.g. adolescent girls’style), styles which mark particular types of interpersonal relation (e.g.styles of respect and the like; these border on gesture-like intonations, such as that of anger).
- Harris (1951), a pag.10, n.10

Although differences of style can be described with the tools of descriptive linguistics, their exact analysis involves so much detailed study that they are generally disregarded. The procedures presented in the following chapters will not take note of style differences, but will assume that all styles within a dialect may be roughly described by a single structural system.
- Harris (1951), a pag.11

[…] because of the great degree of structural identity among various styles within a dialect, it is usually feasible to keep the indications of style as subsidiary differentiations, within utterances which are otherwise structurally identical.
- Harris (1951), a pag.11