This article focuses on the use of collocations in language learning research (LLR). Collocations, as units of formulaic language, are becoming prominent in our understanding of language learning and use; however, while the number of corpus-based LLR studies of collocations is growing, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of factors…

Evaluation in academic discourse has received considerable attention from researchers. Much of the work on evaluation has focused, however, on written genres, and less attention has been paid to how evaluation unfolds in spoken academic genres. In our present research, we are interested in disclosing how the interpersonal meaning of evaluation is…

Academic literacies research has tended to focus on writers in context, while systemic functional linguistic research has tended to focus on texts in context. While literacy practices and written texts may be usefully analysed independently, this paper describes how an investigation of genres of academic writing in the BAWE (British Academic…

This dissertation analyzes two derived Biblical Hebrew verbal forms, the Niphal and the Hitpael. Present scholarship on Biblical Hebrew does not agree on the definition or relationship of these two stems. In chapter 1 I outline the two major problems for the Niphal and Hitpael: (1) unified definitions for each, and (2) their functional overlap. An…

An examination of the social psychological basis of style shifting suggests that, contrary to Labovian theory, many style shifts are not a function of shifts in attention to speech and that there are other more explanatory ways of analyzing style shifts. Some reasons for this view are: (1) attention to speech is sometimes negatively correlated…

Revealed a statistically significant difference between alcoholic and nonalcoholic oral syntactic performance, with alcoholic subjects committing greater numbers of syntactic and semantic errors than nonalcoholics. Indicated a deficiency in the integrative and descriptive aspects of alcoholics' oral language performance. (RL)

A comparative analysis of four studies that emphasized linguistic similarities (rather than differences) between nonstandard speakers and other groups focused on developmental characteristics of the semantic categories encoded by nonstandard speakers compared with other speakers. Implications for language assessment are discussed. (JW)

A study examined lexical density in interviews and conversation with the same subjects. Sixteen undergraduate and graduate students, members of religious, political, and/or cultural societies at Aston University (England), were interviewed in pairs by the university chaplain, who knew them. Immediately following each interview, the chaplain left…

Compares the language usage of a working-class couple and a small-town mayor. Uses a Marxian rhetorical perspective to connect language styles and class distinctions. Considers the educational implications of this connection. (RL)

Examines the less obvious differences between British and American English in regard to semantics and grammar. A comparison is made, to see how American and British styles differ for public notice, in an experiment in which speakers of American English were asked to paraphrase notices from a British public utility office. (Author/OD)

Examines the nature of the convergent relationship between formal spoken and written discourse by focusing on three issues: (1) spoken vs. written modes; (2) formal vs. informal discourse; and (3) the relationship between oral ritual communication and written language and between ritual/written communication and everyday colloquial language. (SED)

Foreigner talk (FT) has been characterized as speech "used by speakers of a language to outsiders who are felt to have limited command of a language or no knowledge of it," or "the variety of language that is regarded by a speech community as primarily appropriate for addressing foreigners." A study was carried out in Germany…

Some aspects of the field of lexicology in general, and of English lexicology in particular, are examined in light of current linguistic theory. Definitions of lexicology, its role in linguistics, the concept and nature of lexical competence, the relationship of grammar and lexicon, and the process of lexicalization are reviewed. Conversion and…

A study of the writing processes of ten fifth-grade French immersion students examined 22 features of their writing in both English and French. Differences across languages occurred in eight features, and students displayed a wide range of writing process behaviors in both languages. (Author/MSE)

A study examined interactional patterns in interviews that characterize elicitation of one text type, description, including type/mixture of questions asked by the fieldworker and the speaker's response. Subjects (n=137) were of three ethnic groups and three socioeconomic levels. Results suggest questioning strategy can have strong, predictable…