Discusses teaching students to be sensitive to the nuances of word choice, intonation patterns, slang, and grammatical deviations in a second language. Suggests some classroom techniques to develop this awareness. (EKN)

This article discusses the variable behavior of the silent "e" in French, in three different stylistic contexts: lecture, conversation, and reading. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Analysis of headlines reporting the outcomes of professional and college football games revealed language use patterns involving transitive and intransitive verbs, phrase structure, alliteration and puns, and action verbs. It is suggested that continued use of a verb for winning or losing may lead to a change in its meaning. (Author/CB)

Discusses the prospect of the elimination of metaphors in writings done in E-Prime (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be"). Considers the ontology and epistemology of language with respect to the implementation of E-Prime. Argues for the usefulness of E-Prime in writing instruction. (HB)

Defines poetry as a distinctive form of language. Argues that writing poetry in E-Prime (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be") can be a very effective tool for locating the fragmentation of regular language. Claims that excellent poetry can be written in E-Prime. (HB)

Describes how a teacher revised his public speaking textbook by altering the style to "E-Prime" (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be"). Summarizes the arguments against the use of E-Prime and provides responses that might come from E-Prime's supporters. (HB)

This cross-cultural discourse analysis examines the construction of environmental issues on Greenpeace web pages in China, Japan and Germany. To uncover the semantic representation of environmental activism on these sites, the authors sought to identify discursive homogeneity and divergence and to bring to light embedded cultural assumptions. The…

A discussion and clarification of various forms and levels of Black English is provided together with a conjugation of the verb "to be" outlining the levels of meanings as used by most divergent black speakers. (EH)

It is proposed that the functions of the Mandarin verbal suffix "-le" are three: (1) for marking non-continual factual actions or events; (2) for indicating the "peak" in an event line; and (3) for explicitly marking anteriority of an action or event. Observations of written language drawn from newspaper articles and…

Defining peak as the climax of discourse, this paper argues that it is important to identify peak in order to get at the overall grammar of a given discourse. The paper presents case studies in which four instances of peak in narrative discourses occur in languages from four different parts of the world. It also illustrates the occurrence of a…

Earlier sociolinguistic studies distinguish between Standard English and Black English with respect to indirect question formation. Standard English typically does not invert the tense-marker "do" in the imbedded question ("Ask John if he played basketball today") while Black English does ("Ask John did he play basketball today"). In fact, the…

This paper reports on a study designed to investigate the kinds of responses people produce during wrong-number telephone calls and to discover the rules that appear to govern the choices of the responses and their relationships. Fifty-seven calls were placed at different times during the day over a period of several weeks. The sentences used to…

Anthropological linguists often deal with language systems manifesting nonrandom variability. This article demonstrates that methods developed within the U.S. for the study of language variability are useful in the study of creole languages. This study was conducted on the island of Tobago in the West Indies. (CHK)

A study examined the shift from standard spoken Japanese to dialect and compared it to the shift from formal to informal forms, within the context of several theories of code-switching and style-shifting. A five-minute segment was taken from a 30-minute conversation between three female native Japanese-speakers, all familiar with the Osaka…

First explains what is meant by "metalinguistic awareness" as a special dimension of language experience and its seeming importance in education; then describes a conception of the function of "play" in general and play with language in particular; and asks how educators might encourage play with language in school. (Author/JM)