Literature survey concerning the Learner Corpus Research (LCR) in the last 20 years has shown a paucity of studies involving specialised/discipline-specific text. Since the use of discipline-specific academic writing learner corpora is useful in determining the language pattern within the English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) context, this…

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…

Considers children's understanding and use of contrast in language, including discussion of the role contrast plays in adult speech, the kinds of contrast commonly exemplified, and possible tests for sameness or difference of meaning. (CB)

Argues that the study of natural sign languages can enhance understanding of what language really is. The aspects of sign language that are similar and dissimilar to the characteristics of spoken language are described. (Author/CB)

Tracing Appalachian speech to different areas of the British Isles entailed researching hard-to-find linguistic studies and original texts in Belfast, Edinburgh, and other locations. The Scotch-Irish contribution significantly outweighs that from Southern Britain and appears much more responsible for the grammatical features of Appalachian…

A review of research and theory on the structure of signed and spoken languages explores the relationship between the two language types and how the study of signed languages can inform researchers about the human capacity for language. (29 references) (CB)

It is suggested that the notion of prestige has been too readily appealed to in explanations of language variation and change, and that such appeals result in apparent contradictions and conceptual confusions. The term "prestige" has been used by sociolinguists in widely differing ways, and, as a result, the nature of the term has become…

Suppletion is allomorphy that is produced by retrieving from the lexicon different phonological forms of the morpheme in question. A suppletive allomorph's use may be conditioned by grammatical or phonological context, or a combination. Its use therefore has dual motivation: the fact that it is governed by grammatical rule, and that its use in…

Metrical phonology, a linguistic process of phonological stress assessment and diagrammatic simplification of sentence and word stress, is discussed as it is found in the English and German languages. The objective is to promote use of metrical phonology as a tool for enhancing instruction in stress patterns in words and sentences, particularly in…

The function of word order is examined in light of interference in the learning of English discourse by Chinese speakers and vice versa. Emphasis on different devices in coding discourse functions is shown to be reflected in interference between the two languages. (13 references) (LB)

It is suggested that contrastive linguistics, the systematic comparison of two languages, be considered in the preparation of instructional materials and as a choice of teaching methods and techniques for training tranlators and interpreters. The contrastive analysis hypothesis suggests that the major source of errors committed by learners of a…

A 1978 theory of politeness based on the concept of "face" (public self-image) and proposed at the time as comprehensive and universal, is examined in the context of more recent research. The theory holds that everyone has both negative and positive face, both of which are threatened by another at times, and that individuals will choose…

This paper considers four levels of analysis in the observation of the prosodic features of pause in speech: phonetic; syntactic; semantic; and informative. On the phonetic level, a pause is related to length and intonation, and intonation in turn, being a result of the speaker's meaning, constitutes an expression of his/her emotional state. On…