In this article, we examine our own doctoral supervisory dialogue as it has been institutionally interrupted due to Ahmad's application for asylum in the UK. As we find ourselves lacking the conditions of recognisability required for our actions to be institutionally understood (or made intelligible) as part of a doctoral supervisory relationship,…

Studies the Yagua speakers' use of a second position morpheme for indicating that information should be integrated as part of the main event line. Concludes that the information attached to this morpheme is mildly or strongly discontinuous with preceding information or expectations. (HB)

Presents an interpretive theory assigning all text to "Linguistic Worlds" (LWs). Shows how a special deictic LW (needed for default attribution to the speaker and useful for describing parentheticals, evaluative adjectives, and epitheticals) gives the capacity to characterize shifts in point of view accompanying the indirect first-person speech of…

Provides representative examples of the problems that diminish the utility of current metadiscourse theories, and proposes an alternative theory that locates metadiscourse within the larger context of speech act theory. Defines metadiscourse as indicators of expositive illocutionary acts, and provides a taxonomy of metadiscursive functions and…

Argues that on-line linguistic choices are made in a matrix of continuous discourse connection. Investigates hypotheses concerning communicative dynamism. Identifies gestures as reflective of the status of utterances. Interprets correlations of gestures and linguistic material as reflective of an underlying unity. (HB)

Demonstrates that in spoken discourse many clauses introduced by "subordinating conjunctions" are actually neither structurally nor informationally subordinate. Suggests that the study of linguistic complexity must include spoken as well as written discourse and take account of cultural and situational language contexts. (SR)

Two views of coherence in written discourse can be analyzed and then blended into a theory of coherence that selects the best of both views. One view is H. Miller's observation that all coherences are tentative and that the composing process is richer than its products. Another view is A. D. Van Nostrand's suggestion that the two elementary…

Writing research has long sought to identify the internal features of written discourse that help to explain qualitative differences among student texts. Reflecting the theories of the Prague School linguists, this study used a topical structure analysis to distinguish between the sentences and T-units of 48 college freshman essays evaluated as…

Describes how linguistic analysis can change the computer from a generator of data that can be used to develop a critical analysis to a tool that provides a means to explore the processes and inputs that generate different interpretations of literary works. Illustrates this concept by analyzing a Shakespearean sonnet. (CFR)

Contrasts differences in language use across the Japanese workplace, including women's speech. Examines what is referred to as "manifestations of power" among Japanese working women. Explores "resistance to subordination" among female university students who have not yet entered professional or domestic life. Comparison of the…

Part of a more extended study, a study used discourse analysis to examine how instructors and students talk about sexist language in an attempt to discover their implicit language theories. Subjects, six instructors and six undergraduate students chosen from a convenience sample at a large western university, were interviewed and asked to comment…

A discussion of the mechanism of totalitarian indoctrination institutionalized in the Romanian educational system focuses on verbal interaction in school and school-related situations before the revolution of December 1989. Pragmatic analysis of the political language used in a variety of academic contexts (political science, political education,…

Argues that the formal properties of language reflect the underlying mental processes that individuals deploy in problem-solving situations. This analysis of the linguistic features of "private writing" reveals that writers utilize their linguistic systems to organize and direct strategic mental processes. (69 references) (CK)

A class "on" metaphor can be usefully distinguished from a class "in" metaphor. A class on metaphor concentrates on metaphor theory and function. To teach in metaphor would be to coach students in pragmatics, to guide them in the study of how key metaphors are used and help to structure discrete universes of discourse. For…

The development of alternative instructional activities for use in the basic writing classroom and a description and analysis of four levels of basic writing are the results of a study of basic writing teaching techniques. The linguistic concepts of immediate and transferred utterances and nominal-verbal pairing, and the work of L. Vygotsky on…