Two speech events, narration and joking conversation, are analyzed from speech samples of Hawaiian 5- to 7-year-olds. An underlying iterative routine was found which allows for both stories and joking to be produced jointly in a contrapuntal style. (Author/RM)

Narratives from part-Hawaiian children 5 to 12 years old in a variety of circumstances were collected for several years. Typical verbal routines, ways of analyzing the data, tendency of routines to structure speech events, functions of nonnarrative routines in narrative performance, and establishing a context for narration are considered. (EJS)

Results of a study are discussed which involved first grade black children who produced multiple instances of linguistic variables. The suggestion is made that the standard English "is" and "has" in certain constructions have been reanalyzed as nominal inflections. (RM)

Describes specific changes in children's conversational abilities in early childhood, which may in turn serve to alter how their partners judge their abilities to understand. The evidence regarding the level and types of changes in adult speech to children as the child's ability changes is also addressed. (EJS)

Focuses on arguments among White American children in a small town in New England, Black American children of migrant harvesters, and rural Hindi-speaking Fiji Indian children. Findings suggest that, while repetition, inversion, and escalation are common to all three cultures, there is considerable variation as to how they are used. (EJS)

Attempts to demonstrate that there is a "cultural communicative style" operating in the issuance of directives that is distinct for different cultures. Emphasis is placed on investigation of children's strategies in their total communicative behavior, both linguistic and nonlinguistic. (EJS)