There is an ongoing debate whether phenomena of disfluency (such as filled pauses) are produced communicatively. Clark and Fox Tree ("Cognition" 84(1):73-111, 2002) propose that filled pauses are words, and that different forms signal different lengths of delay. This paper evaluates this Filler-As-Words hypothesis by analyzing the…

Mathematics curricula increasingly emphasise the importance of mathematical communication. Students are seen as progressing from the use of a more informal or everyday form of communication to a more mathematical approach. There have, however, been very few studies of how mathematicians actually talk about mathematics. This paper reports analysis…

This qualitative study investigates how 90 teachers explored critical curriculum through their reading, analysis and creation of counter advertisements. Located in visual discourse analysis, we designed a study to investigate the question "To what extent can teachers engaged in a critical literacy curriculum talk back to messages of consumerism,…

Analyzes the linguistic notion of procedural vocabulary, proposing that several different vocabulary concepts are part of this type of vocabulary. The paper discusses the role of procedural vocabulary in discourse, suggesting that the concepts of schema and procedure are relevant for describing this type of vocabulary and categorizing it into two…

This paper examines United States Representative Hale Boggs's 1971 speech on the House floor, in which he denounced J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for wiretapping members of Congress and infiltrating campus student groups. Following an introduction to the objectives of the paper, the first section reviews Boggs's…

Investigates the communicative treatment of secrets, presenting examples from recorded communicative interactions in a wide range of social milieus and settings in which the participants revealed knowledge of secrets, tried to dig out old secrets without appearing to be doing so, and occasionally, appeared to be hiding some items of knowledge from…

Investigates moral issues in delivering good and bad news, examining episodes of good and bad news in ordinary conversation and in institutional settings, then describing an interaction between a teacher and a parent. As the parent blames the teacher for the student's poor performance, and the teacher delicately notes the student's need to mature,…

Investigates how language events are reported in English. The article outlines four dimensions of choice for the reporter in any language: (1) the voice presented as the report's source; (2) the way in which the message is reported; (3) the reporting signal; and (4) the reporter's attitude. Some possible applications of the framework are outlined.…

Examines the development of epistemic modality, with particular attention to how French children (four, six, and eight year olds) evaluate the conditions of use for modal expressions marking certainty and uncertainty. Results show that four and six year olds attribute certainty more often than eight year olds. (44 references) (GLR)

Examines the rating scale and the testing procedure of the oral interview for evidence of discourse competence. The paper suggests that a careful examination of the processing capabilities might serve as a valid indicator of their discourse competence. (24 references) (GLR)

Introduces a special issue containing a series of articles on the relation of social interaction and morality. The articles analyze actual instances of moral discourse, elucidating the nature and dynamics of the relationship. This introduction discusses morality, discourse, and social science; proto-mortality as a substructure of discourse;…

Explores issues concerning the accountability of conduct and the moral work that may be managed through accounts of actions, in the context of naturally occurring telephone conversations. Distinguishes between the implicit and explicit moral work of accounts, considering cases in which speakers appear implicitly to be doing defensive moral work in…

A theory of how readers monitor concerns of characters and make causal inferences during reading is presented. The focus is on the reader's understanding of what characters do when goals either succeed or fail. Knowledge of goal processes enable coherent understanding to be achieved when characters change goal plans and pursue new courses of…

Referring to a recent British publication, discusses linguistic problems in technical language and their relevance to foreign language teaching. Mentions specifically "cognitive structures" common to the foreign and the native languages, which can facilitate understanding technical texts. Discusses also "modes of discourse" which are relevant to…

An unofficial study is recounted in which professional journals from various disciplines were examined to see whether writing styles were appreciably different from one another. An appendix with excerpts from some of the journals, with varying degrees of coherence is included. (HTH)