Across the centuries, the question of the origin of language has captivated the human imagination. Many theories have been proposed to address fundamental questions such as: Where do languages come from? How do they evolve? What are the societal drivers of this change? Historically, one of the biggest challenges in addressing these questions has…

Because language, as a method of communication, is a two-way channel involving both speakers and listeners, a methodical study of linguistic variation should involve an analysis of both, how it is expressed and how it is interpreted. Furthermore, because language is known to vary between individuals (inter-speaker variation) as well as at the…

This is the book of abstracts for the conference held in 2017 entitled: ''METADISCOURSE ACROSS GENRES: MAPPING INTERACTION IN SPOKEN & WRITTEN DISCOURSES'', also known as MAG2017. The 1st International Conference on Metadiscourse Across Genres took place in METU Northern Cyprus Campus, Cyprus between 30 March-1 April 2017 with the…

As an area of research that continues to develop, the study of linguistics worldwide presents the opportunity for the improvement of cross-cultural communication through education and research. Language educators are charged with the task of instructing students to effectively communicate across cultures in a multi-lingual world. The…

Speech conditions of emission can result in influences on the speaker, leading to dramatic changes in the speaker's speech production. However, most studies performed on the "speaking styles" restrict their observations to very contrasted situations and compare so-called "spontaneous" speech to the "laboratory"…

Refers to "fine points" of Spanish usage. (SK)

This article discusses the various styles of commercial correspondence in Spanish. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

Because of the syntactic differences between Spanish and Quechua, Quechua-speaking children must make major word order adjustments to learn the Peruvian Spanish taught in school. This study investigates whether the order or time sequence in which these changes are adopted reflects any general constraint, or is in any way predicted by a theory of…

This paper reports one aspect of the author's research on the phonology of the Spanish spoken in Tucson, Arizona. The specific aspect of the research considered there concerns "levels" of speech. "Levels" refers to the systematic variation in speech form that can be observed in the speech of one individual. The empirical…

Language attrition research usually attempts to elicit all types of usage from speakers of all fluency levels in a dying language in order to abstract changing linguistic patterns from situational variation. Informants adept at hiding their vernacular and improvising in an obsolescing variety are reluctant to admit to such scrutiny. In a…

Papers on language research in this volume include the following: Phonetique ou phonologie: le chva dans les emprunts anglais en portugais (Phonetics or Phonology: The Schwa in English Loan Words to Portuguese) (Pascale Belanger); NewsExpert: exemple de l'application de la linguistique informatique a Internet (NewsExpert: An Example of Its…

This paper proposes a tentative notational or marking system which attempts to provide more information on the sociolinguistic constraints upon the use of linguistic features than has been the case in other systems. A review of other studies in language variation, particularly those of William Labov, suggests that much can be done toward…

A comparative study of turn-taking in North American and Spanish conversation investigated (1) differences in styles for the two cultures and (2) any resulting misinterpretation of communicative intentions. Data for the first were drawn from two dinner parties, one with four American women, conducted in English, and one with four Spanish-speaking…

A study examined the production of lateral consonants in seven male university students bilingual in Spanish and Catalan who had studied French in elementary and secondary school. A questionnaire elicited information about the subjects' use of each language with parents, with friends, at home, and in school. Each subject then read a 775-word text…