Human creativity and ingenuity partly depend on divergent thinking -- the ability to generate many varied, original, and elaborate responses. Prior research has found ample evidence of an effect of cognitive factors, including the organization of semantic networks and associative ability, on divergent thinking. Less is known, however, about how…

This corpus-based study explores the expression of gratitude in the acknowledgement section of doctoral dissertations in both English and Arabic. The objective is to analyse how gratitude in academic discourse is structured in these languages and to explore any differences related to gender. The study examines 80 dissertations (40 in English and…

In this work, based on an oral corpus of semi-directed interviews conducted in French with 40 L1 Chinese speakers learning French in France and in English with 29 L1 Chinese speakers learning English in the United States, I investigated the quotative system in non-native speech of English and French as it is used in the Chinese diaspora in Paris…

We investigate the extent to which language versions (English, French and Arabic) of the same science test are comparable in terms of item difficulty and demands. We argue that language is an inextricable part of the scientific literacy construct, be it intended or not by the examiner. This argument has considerable implications on methodologies…

This article presents an adaptation of a position paper written by Da Pidgin Coup, a group of concerned faculty and students in the Department of Second Language Studies (SLS). In fall 1999, the group became concerned about a statement made by the chairman of the Board of Education implicating Pidgin in the poor results of the students of Hawai'i…

The textbook, entirely in French, is an introduction to functional phonology. The first six chapters present the basics of functional phonology, insisting on the specific aspects of this approach for the description of languages. Principles and procedures of synchronic analysis are outlined and illustrated through many examples. Chapter 7 is…

Drawing on the growing literature on language revitalization initiatives and examples of one Andean initiative in particular, the essay attempts to synthesize some common language corpus and language status transformations that threatened languages undergo during the process of revitalization. Specifically, it looks at the often unexpected changes…

Geolinguistics is the developing branch of human geography concerned with the relationship of languages and their physical and human settings. It investigates the socio-spatial context of language use and language choice, measures language distribution and variety, assesses the relative usefulness and availability of different languages from…

Observation of child language development is just one way to study how language changes over time. Developmental psycholinguistics shares much common ground with historical linguistics and with studies of languages in contact and the evolution of pidgins and creoles. By studying the way language changes, this paper focuses on clarifying the…

The volume, which is part of a series providing a full account of the history of the English language, details the history of English from 1776 to 1997. An extensive introduction explains the changing socio-historic setting in which English has developed in response to a continuing background of diversity as it was transplanted to North America…

This collection of symposium papers on varieties of the English language used in Ireland includes: "The Role of Irish English in the Formation of Colonial Englishes," by P. Trudgill; "Anglo-Irish Verse in Translation from Irish," by P. L. Henry; "The Methodology of Urban Language Studies," by J. Milroy;…

A comparison of the linguistic contexts of Scotland and Taiwan focuses on three aspects: (1) existence of two linguistic codes belonging to the same language family; (2) the status of one of those languages as the standard set by a larger, more powerful neighbor from whose perspective any other variety is likely to look like a dialect; and (3) the…

Suggests that the variety of English spoken in Brunei (BNE), sometimes called nonstandard, is still at an early stage of development and there is little awareness among its speakers of some differences from standard English (STE). Results of a grammaticality judgment test administered to 106 university students, designed to find nonstandard verb…

Papers presented at the symposium on the relationship between language and culture include, in addition to an opening adress: "Sociosemiotics Across Cultures" (Wolfgang Kuhlwein); "Translation Across Languages or Across Cultures?" (Albrecht Neubert); "Grammatical Categories Across Cultures" (Olga Tomic); "On…

English translations of articles in French in this issue include these: "Discourse Reported in the Print Media"; "Comparison of Register in Quebec and French Speakers"; "Method of Description of Specialized Verbs in View of Machine Translation Applications"; "Dialectal Areas in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande…