This dissertation investigates how distributional information in the speech stream can assist infants in the initial stages of acquisition of their native language phonology. An exploratory statistical analysis derives this information from the adult speech data in the corpus of conversations between adults and young children in Russian. Because…

Discusses J. L. Austin's treatment of perlocution and extends it to an analysis of five types of perlocution. Proposes a set of conditions necessary and sufficient for consummation of any perlocutionary act. (JMF)

The child's development of productive control over the adults language system is seen as an outcome of the dynamic social discourse of parent and child. Traditional approaches to child language are reviewed and a dialectical analysis is developed using concepts from information theory and a general systems approach. (JMB)

This article is in response to Michael Burgoon's call in "Communication Education," October 1989, for the divorcing of speech education from the discipline of communication. It is argued that the lack of isomorphism between speech education and behavioral research in communication reflects a serious imbalance within the discipline, one…

In order to test the conclusions of previous studies of the informal communication system commonly known as the "grapevine," a study was conducted of the flow of one unit of information over the organizational grapevine. One of the experimenters planted a unit of information with two secretaries in the departmental office of Speech and…

Explains how information theory can be applied to the study of oral interpretation in ways that help performers understand and use the channels available to them in sharing literature with listeners. (PD)

Reviews the evolution of the term entropy from the mathematical and mechanical perspective and discusses implications for its use in the communication field. (MH)

Focuses on an analysis of discourse in natural settings including speeches and formal presentations as well as informal meetings and ordinary talk. (MH)

The "logos" concept of Martin Heidegger's phenomenological philosophy refers to a perceptual attunement to "Being," or reality as a whole, which is prior to language. Logos includes every way in which people interpret, constitute, and interact with their world. Language is seen as prior to our awareness of Being, as well as…

This paper specifically discusses the differing methods by which certain conceptual divisions in the field of speech communication have been determined. Classifying the various conceptual approaches as (1) definitional analyses, (2) structural approaches, (3) research classifications, and (4) approaches reflecting a combination of these three, the…

Discusses information theory and the notions of uncertainty and semantic choice in child language. (AM)

This report proposes that people often plan their speech acts to affect their listeners' beliefs, goals, and emotional states and that such language use can be modeled by viewing speech acts as operators in a planning system, allowing both physical and speech acts to be integrated into plans. Methodological issues of how speech acts should be…

Presents an interpretation of the past and present of graduate education in mass communication and suggests some fresh directions. (JMF)

The current development of a communication theory known as coordinated management of meaning is presented in this report. The communication process is modeled as an open system; human actors constitute component subsystems with the ability to organize their cognitions into constitutive and regulative rules. The conjoining of individuals' rule sets…

While rhetorical theory has long been concerned with the epistemological foundations of rhetorical abilities, the full potential of the structuralist perspective is far from realized. The study of speech acts and inventive processes discloses the underlying logic of linguistic performance. A speech act is conceptualized in terms of the…