Explores how children's performance on picture description tasks in French, their limited-use language, compares to their performance on the same tasks in English. Investigates whether home language environment has an effect on performance. (SR)

Describes and categorizes patterns we construct between texts of different kinds (patterns of intertextuality). Whether the principles of intertextuality can be applied to other sorts of semiotic "texts" such as computer graphics and hypermedia is raised as a crucial question for the future of educational research. (Contains 48…

Describes a project to code complementation patterns of all verbs in the Collins COBUILD English language corpus, using simple notation based on words and word classes rather than traditional functional categories. This is the first pedagogic grammar to integrate syntax and lexis using corpus data. Explores the possibility of using a pattern…

A discussion of two text-types commonly occurring in casual conversation, stories and gossip, (1) details four kinds of stories told in casual talk, (2) demonstrates that gossip is a culturally-determined process with a distinctive structure, and (3) considers implications for teaching English-as-a- Second-Language. Analysis is based on over three…

Examined both qualitatively and quantitatively the diachronic evolution of referential behavior in medical written-English discourse within a social constructivist perspective. Analyzed a corpus of 162 medical articles published in 34 British and American medical journals between 1810 and 1995. (Author/VWL)

Specific diphthongs were produced by four individuals from the coastal southern dialect region who were selected from among those who had successfully completed an accent-reduction program. Results showed that diphthongs used in Southern English were shorter and had less noticeable transitional elements than those in Standard American English.…

Identifies the characteristic principles of intertextuality in school mathematics. Drawing on a larger study, this article examines how language is used to construct the shared meanings of a mathematical theme. An analysis is made of spoken and written texts to determine their contribution to the development of a thematic formation for the topic…

Examines stylistic conventions across disciplines in the language of doctoral theses, arguing that these conventions reflect sophisticated learning of key disciplinary norms governing the conception, production, and reporting of knowledge in particular fields. Attention is directed to the structure of argument and techniques for coherence,…

Studies on classroom interaction have typically focused on relationships between turn-taking patterns and some larger unit of analysis of varying length and nature. However, two questions still left unanswered are how teachers talk differently from students in general and how linguistic variation between two participants might relate to…

A variety of techniques for collecting and analyzing information about the natural use of natural languages is surveyed, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the properties of a research task that make a given technique more or less suitable to it rather than comparing techniques globally and ranking them absolutely. An initial goal is to…

Locative inversion, one aspect of word order in English discourse in which the positions of verb and noun phrase are inverted (e.g., "in front of the house is a tree"), is examined. It is argued that inversions after deictic adverbs and those after non-deictic, locative constituents are related, both representing devices: (1) expressing point of…

This study investigated how native Japanese speakers use honorifics in everyday social interaction. Honorifics are affixes, words, and formulaic phrases that follow linguistic and sociolinguistic rules and are believed to mark a speaker's politeness toward an addressee or another referenced person. The honorific system is incorporated into most…

A study is reported that describes ways in which nonnative speakers assess, plan, and execute speech acts in certain situations. The subjects, 15 advanced English foreign-language learners, were given 6 speech act situations (two apologies, two complaints, and two requests) in which they were to role play along with a native speaker. The…

There are certain pre-coded (formulaic) utterances conventionally triggered by certain communication situations, and their use is expected and deemed appropriate because they are seen as part of everyday politeness formulas. Lack of an English equivalent indicates cultural differences governing their use. Some routines are taught explicitly and…

To explore the concept of lexical collocation, or relationships between words, a study was conducted based on three assumptions: (1) that a text structure for a unit of discourse was analogous to that existing at the level of the sentence, (2) that such a text form could be discovered if a large enough sample of generically similar texts was…