This article contributes to existing studies that are concerned with standardisation and supralocalisation processes in the development of written English during the Early Modern English period. By focussing on and comparing civic records and letter data from important regional urban centres, notably Bristol, Coventry and York, from the period…

Explores the use of the English phrase "I wish," focusing on the use of past and present tenses, the addition of the word "would," and both positive and negative uses of the phrase. (CB)

Study of a group of logical connectors in English demonstrates how the meanings of those connectors signal the grounding of the clauses they introduce in absolute terms, unlike other linguistic means of grounding performed by tense, aspect, mood, voice, or verbal categories. (14 references) (Author/CB)

Analysis of the differences in use and meaning of simple verb phrases ("to look") and nominalized phrases ("to have a look") points out that such constructions are not semantically empty, light, or weak, because these structures introduce meanings that are uniquely determined by the basic sense of the verb in question. (40 references) (CB)

Discusses the secondary convergence (convergence which is not attributable to common heritage) occurring with English and German complement clauses. Independently, the two languages have developed a structural type of subject clause that enables speakers to avoid committing themselves as to whether the state of affairs they're referring to is a…

The tracing of the origin of the name of a Tidewater, Virginia, group of watermen who spoke a distinctive dialect illustrates the power of language in marking the group's social parameters and distinguishing that group from other area watermen. (34 references) (CB)

Reports on analyses of stress patterns and syllable length for male names, female names, and English nouns, exploring such differences as female names having more syllables, female names typically beginning with unstressed syllables, and male names typically forming the unmarked case. (24 references) (CB)

Analysis of the structural, semantic, and textual aspects of a corpus of 330 English examples of the postpositive conjunctions "though,""as," and "that" focuses on concessive clauses, clauses of reason, clauses of manner, and clauses with postpositive conjunctions and normal clauses. (CB)

Examines 11 types of uses of the English word "with," demonstrating that speakers who use the word have an implicit knowledge of its multiple meanings and uses, which far exceeds their explicit knowledge of the word. (CB)

This discussion of gender constructs compares them with racial constructs, and examines ways in which language tends to dichotomize or polarize them, and to reject ambiguity as unacceptable. Other curiosities about sexual categorization are noted, including the fact that femaleness is subsumed under the category of "man," which in turn…

Considers the frequently indefinable distinctions between descriptive and prescriptive English grammars, using examples of standard English and dialects to illustrate the uses of each. (Author/CB)

An examination of linguists' attempts to characterize the variety of English used in various articles and novels found that, although they used different criteria for classification, the linguists almost equally (about 30 percent of the time each) either could not identify, correctly identified, or incorrectly identified the variety. (14…

The nonuse of slang terms for cash among British bank and building society cashiers is noted and an explanation sought in the field of social control. The possible relevance of the Whorfian hypothesis is explored, and it is suggested that the in-house terms discussed have social, psychological and representational functions. (Author/CB)

Quantitative evidence is presented for a change in vernacular Black English (VBE) that appears to involve increasing similarities between VBE and other varieties. It is suggested that, although Black varieties and White varieties of English remain distinct and undergo certain changes separately, this need not be regarded as absolute divergence.…

Reports on one aspect of an ongoing study of language contact in the American deaf community. The ultimate goal of the study is a linguistic description of contact signing and a reexamination of claims that it is a pidgin. Patterns of language use are reviewed and the role of demographic information in judgments is examined. (29 references) (GLR)