Background: The ability to understand the mental state of others (social cognition), as well as language, is crucial for children to have good social adaptation. Social cognition (SC) has been shown to be a hierarchical model of three factors (Cognitive, intermediate and affective SC) interrelated with linguistic processes. Children on the autism…

In this article, we invite a rethinking of traditional perspectives of language in autism. We advocate a theoretical reappraisal that offers a corrective to the dominant and largely tacitly held view that language, in its essence, is a referential system and a reflection of the individual's cognition. Drawing on scholarship in Conversation…

This essay reviews two books on the work of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu with a special focus on issues of language, education and literacy. The essay sketches out Bourdieu's main theoretical ideas with respect to language, and raises a number of issues on classroom language and academic discourse. Bourdieu's approach is considered…

This book traces the development of speech from a time when the spiritual roots of words were still experienced, down to the present day when words are in danger of being little else than 'bits' of information. The book illustrates the origins of everyday words and names and traces the use of words through history. It shows how certain sounds…

Discusses the stratification and specialization of common language into sublanguages for various spheres of activity and the introduction of the sublanguages into different language boundaries. (CK)

Based on Mulder's previous classification of all semiotic systems designed to describe the system of discrete features in human languages, this article explores a further subclassification of the genus language into species. (CLK)

Experiments in teaching language or language-like behavior to chimpanzees and other primates may bear on the problem of the origin of language. Evidence appears to support the theory that man's first language was gestural. Recent pongid language experiments suggest: (1) a capacity for language is not solely human and therefore does not represent…

Results from these two studies show that fast mapping--gaining information about a word from how it is used in a sentence, what words it is contrasted with, and other factors--can be used successfully by children two to four years old to form quick and rough hypotheses about the meaning of a word. (PCB)

THE WAYS LANGUAGE IS USED BY CHILDREN IN VARIOUS SUBCULTURE GROUPS WERE INVESTIGATED, AND AN EVALUATION WAS MADE OF WHETHER OR NOT THE LANGUAGE OF ANY GROUP CAN BE CONSIDERED DEFICIENT BY USE OF SOME CRITERIA. THE AUTHOR EVALUATED RESEARCH IN LINGUISTICS, DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, AND ANTHROPOLOGY DONE WITH CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT SOCIAL…

SINCE LINGUISTS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY TURNED FROM GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS TO CONSIDER THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY, THE STUDY OF MODERNIZATION HAS BEEN LEFT LARGELY TO SOCIAL SCIENTISTS WHO CAN HARDLY BE EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH LINGUISTIC QUESTIONS. LANGUAGE PROBLEMS, HOWEVER, ARE KNOWN TO PLAGUE DEVELOPING SOCIETIES. IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA,…

The purpose of this study was to delineate the implications of language within an educational context as a means of facilitating self-actualization. Three premises identified in a priori fashion were drawn from the literature in linguistics, psychology, and general semantics, creating a three-part language continuum--acquisition, development, and…

In the first part of the paper the idea of the cognitive network is developed. The network consists of concepts linked together by relationships which are themselves concepts. Concepts are learned according to simple rules, and the network grows as new concepts are learned. Part II considers the growth and structure of language. The growth of…

A definition of bilingualism can include speakers of different languages as well as those who speak several dialects or several sub-varieties of dialects in the same language. Most speakers are able to practice code-switching, whether it is from language to language or dialect to dialect, and the processes involved in such a capability may be the…

This research analyzes language development in the classroom as fostering the development of students who are community builders, problem solvers and critical thinkers. Examples of both positive and negative classroom situations are used to illustrate these three language domains. Successful classrooms are safe communities where children are…

This book reports the proceedings of the conference on the role of speech in language, the fifth conference in the "Communicating by Language" Series, sponsored by the Growth and Development Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The focus of the first group of papers is on the development of speech in man and…