Examines seven techniques speakers use in extending verbal invitations that are not intended to be taken seriously by the speaker. Also shown are ways speakers try to achieve their off-record purpose. Additionally, it is argued that ostensible invitations are related to other types of nonserious language use. (20 references) (GLR)

Uses transcripts of eight aviation accidents and 14 flight simulator sessions to study mitigation. A four-degree scale is developed to quantify the use of mitigation: (1) high mitigation; (2) low mitigation; (3) direct utterance; and (4) aggravation. Mitigation is sensitive to social rank and sometimes less effective than direct utterances in…

An analysis of the institutional context of law suggests that, if legislation is to be both stable and flexible, institutional communicative strategies are required to organize linguistic means to these sociolinguistic ends. The nature of an Act of Parliament is used to illustrate the institutional context of law. (Author/CB)

Reports on some experimental evidence in which politeness is not seen as part of the female register but instead as a social marker, indicating the status of the speaker and addressee in a given situation. (EKN)

Examines changes in formulaic speech in China following the revolution and the Cultural Revolution, by studying politeness formulae and Public Criticism Meetings. Data indicate that routine formulae code cultural norms and that formulaic inventory changes result from the need to code new social facts. (JL)

Presents a systematic investigation of the factors underlying the choice of personal reference. Five experiments examine how native-English-speaking undergraduates of Brown University refer to a professor or student in various situations. The Rule of Polite Reference (RPR) explains how speakers choose the way they will refer to a person in a given…

Claims that folk names of speech acts and speech genres are culture-specific and that a rigorous semantic analysis of such names, expressed in a culture-independent semantic metalanguage, can provide an important insight into communicative routines most characteristic of a given society. (SED)

In a comparison of men's and women's use of directives at a dance group meeting, little difference was found in the frequency with which they direct others, the targets of their directives, or the types of directives used. Directive usage cannot be adequately understood without considering the specific contexts in which the directives occur. (48…

Examination of the use of the simple present verb tense by three-year-old children (N=2) indicates that analyses in terms of tense or aspect are not adequate to account for its use. Results indicate a need to recognize the way in which the form implicitly refers to norms and thereby entails a type of impersonal motivation. (Author/CB)

Ethnographic analysis of a Black female urban community college teacher's classroom speech revealed two distinct but culturally appropriate ways of speaking. Results regarding comparison of the speech events' effects on student participation and their interpretations and meanings are discussed. (Author/CB)