This study tested a theory of null subject pronoun variation, based on a model of discourse connectedness, on the oral and written Spanish narratives of northern California Mexican-descent pre-adolescents. Results indicate the children with greatest depth of ties to the United States are less likely to use overt pronouns than children born in…

An overview of contemporary Hispanic dialectology, focusing on phonological phenomena, syntax, classification schemes, and bilingual communities, demonstrates that dialectology has long ceased to be the collection of innumerable surface deviations. It is suggested that dialectology is a theoretical discipline searching for universal principles to…

Although Eskimo languages are commonly characterized as displaying rather "free" word order compared to major western European languages, West Greenlandic (WG) has a clearly dominant, pragmatically neutral ordering pattern. It is argued that WG behaves more like Slavic languages. (Contains 36 references.) (LB)

Traces the history of Africans in Mexico and the Costa Chica and compares elements of the regional speech as described in a 1958 study with data collected on-site in 1991-1992. Findings indicate that the successful introduction of public education coupled with the ubiquity of the mass media have reduced or eliminated the more distinctively…

This article reviews recent investigations of the development of phonology, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics in the development of speech and language by African American children. Clinical implications are offered to aid the distinction between normal language development using features of African American English and language disorders.…

This essay examines a Brooklyn College-based research collective that placed African American languages and cultures at the center of the composition curriculum. Recovering such pedagogies challenges the perception of the CCCC's 1974 "Students' Right to Their Own Language" resolution as a progressive theory divorced from the everyday…

Though diversity serves as a valuable source for rhetorical inquiry, expressivist instructors who privilege diversity writing may also overemphasize the essential authenticity of their students' vernaculars. This romantic and salvationist impulse reveals the troubling implications of eighteenth-century Natural Language Theory and may,…

This publication of proceedings, most in English and some in Chinese, of a conference on Chinese languages and linguistics include the following papers: "On Rule Effect and Dialect Classification" (Chin-Chuan Cheng); "Cross-Linguistic Typological Variation, Grammatical Relations, and the Chinese Language" (Bernard Comrie);…

The dictionary for Central and E-Saan varieties of Thai is designed as a reference for use by Peace Corps volunteers assigned to northeastern Thailand. An introductory section gives an overview of the dictionary's content and design. Most of the words included are functional vocabulary, and the usage is illustrated in sample sentences written in…

The dictionary for Central to Southern varieties of Thai is designed as a reference for use by Peace Corps volunteers assigned to southern Thailand. An introductory section gives an overview of the dictionary's content and design and some notes on tone patterns and spelling variation in the Central and Southern varieties. Most of the words…

This workbook is designed to assist teenagers and adults in learning the Koyukon language, and is intended as a classroom supplement. Users are encouraged to use the language with native speakers. The text consists of 36 lessons on grammar, conversation, and language patterns: exclamations; a beginning conversation; single words that form a…

Some of the uses of laughter in conversation are examined, specifically as laughter occurs in a second language setting. Although the concepts of humor and laughter are often intertwined, not all laughter is humorous, nor does every humorous event evoke laughter. Furthermore, cross-cultural difference can contribute to misinterpretation of…

This study examined the speech act of agreement and disagreement in the ordinary conversation of English-speakers in India. Data were collected in natural speech elicited from educated, bilingual speakers in cross-sex and same-sex conversations in a range of formal and informal settings. Subjects' ages ranged from 19 to about 60. Five agreement…

A study of middle verb constructions in Canadian French and Madrid Spanish suggests that two alleged defining characteristics of these constructions are not really defining characteristics. These are: (1) that the constructions only appear in generic sentences, and (2) that they disallow "by"-phrases of the type found in passive…

An approach to written composition built upon knowledge of the linguistic environments of inner-city blacks is described.