Describes international amateur radio talk (IART) as a clear case of the significance of the channel or medium as a restrictive factor in discourse and analyzes sample texts of IART. (HTH)

Discusses how children in one society on the Papuan Plateau, Papua, New Guinea, learn about making and responding to requests based on a strategy of appeal. (FL)

Illustrates the existence of meanings in conversation that are not based on the listener's interpretations by analyzing the conversations from a family therapy session. Transcripts of the conversations are appended. (HTH)

Discusses the process of understanding of intent by which participants, through the comparative interpretation of a series of cues and symbols as they are revealed in speech, develop categories for a contextual model of communication. Argues that discourse is essentially dialogic and phenomenologically realizable. (FL)

Notes that studies of the social contexts of literacy learning in school suggest that literacy development cannot be understood apart from the context in which it occurs. Argues that some learning environments provide differential access to literacy activities in which participating in meaningful discourse is both process and product. Concludes…

Assesses three papers in this volume, those by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy, for their treatment of the following: (1) definition of semantic space, (2) defining children's processes of understanding that space, and (3) describing the contexts in which cognitive language is used. (AEW)

Reviews the methodological issues raised by previous research into the language used by thought-disordered and nondisordered schizophrenics. (FL)

Discusses the ellipsis of major sentential elements as a pervasive grammatical phenomenon in Japanese conversation and demonstrates its relevance for current theories of discourse or text analysis. (FL)

Critically examines papers by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy. (AEW)