Examines a cultural phenomenon of "freier," or "sucker," in Israeli society, reflecting almost diametrically opposed values of American immigrants and native Israelis. In 47 interviews with American immigrants concerning communication interactions, insight was gained into the status and posture of the immigrants in the host…

This paper reports on research conducted in the Language and Society Centre of the National Languages Institute of Australia, Monash University, into interaction in English between non-native speakers from different ethnolinguistic backgrounds. The project emphasizes two aspects of verbal interaction where language-specific rules are closely…

Proposals for changing sexist language, while having an increasing impact on patterns of language usage in America, have also continuously been argued against in the media and in academia during the 1970's. The proposals for eliminatinq the usage of masculine terms as "generics" have received the most criticism. In this paper, the various…

A contrastive study of Japanese and American English sought to explore how speakers agree and disagree in the two languages. Japanese-speaking college students and American English-speaking teachers of English as a foreign language were informally questioned about food preferences, with their comments surreptitiously recorded for analysis. Results…

Analysis of 642 slang terms that college students use to characterize peers at Holy Cross College (Massachusetts) and University of California, Davis suggests that undergraduate slang usage is socially complex, the language is reflective of campus and academic life, and that it portrays undergraduate life from the perspective of dominant student…

Measures the reactions of teachers all over Wales to a number of varieties of Welsh English, as well as Standard British English. While they endorsed the social value of Standard British English as holding most prestige, the Southwest Wales variety emerged as a dynamic and the most truly Welsh-sounding contender for the title of Standard Welsh…

This book, written in a narrative style that combines autobiography, case studies, and fiction, presents a picture of academic life as experienced by gay men and lesbian women. The way in which research has defined gay identity is the way lesbian and gay people are identified in the daily life of the university, and it looks to the university…

This paper examines the proposition that languages may differ in their potential for non-sexist usage, and that the structure of a language, in particular the gender system, affects the nature of the linguistic response to changing social attitudes regarding sex roles. A brief historical survey of gender and sex-marking is followed by a review of…

This three year exploratory research study investigated the cultural behaviors of Afro-Americans. Results of the study include: 1) A set of historical data on the continuous existence of cultural behaviors by Afro-Americans in the areas of music, language, food and dance. 2) A set of empirical data which explores contemporary expressions of…

The following are included in this collection of essays on patterns of rules of speaking, and sociolinguistics and second language learning and teaching: "How to Tell When Someone Is Saying 'No' Revisited" (Joan Rubin); "Apology: A Speech-Act Set" (Elite Olshtain and Andrew Cohen); "Interpreting and Performing Speech Acts in a Second Language: A…