The major purpose of this study was to contrast the responses of three groups of subjects to a language attitude questionnaire focusing on non-mainstream language patterns. The three groups were writers in the area of sociolinguistics, students who were enrolled in an experimental sociolinguistic-oriented instructional module, and students…

Any theory of language acquisition must take into account the actual speech heard by children during the acquisition period. When 8 well-educated mothers were tape-recorded talking to their daughters, ages 16 to 30 months, it was found that their speech differed significantly from that spoken to another adult. The mothers used a more restricted…

This paper discusses the results of part of an ongoing project studying an aspect of real world language usage, the comprehension of standard jury instructions. Problems in the comprehension of these instructions include the memory load that they impose, the fact that most instructions are read only once, and the fact that instructions are written…

The discoveries of theoretical linguistics could aid teachers in explaining such usages as "well,""sort of," sex link uses, and forms marking levels of politeness. Conversely, there is much about second language learning that theoretical linguistics could learn from applied linguistics. (Author/KM)

This article examines "ty" and "vy" usage in contemporary Soviet Russian by way of contrastive analysis with pronoun usage in English. The importance of understanding the cultural implications of the Russian pronouns is stressed. (CLK)

The system of deriving baby speech from adult speech is discussed. The theory is based on the system of consonantal replacements. (NCR)

Focuses on the sources and character of West Indian public oratory, its style and efflorescence, giving special attention to the leading positions of Barbados and Jamaica. Despite the primary concern for public performance, much examination of more private traditions of discourse and the social realities that were their foundation, became the…

A discussion of error analysis understood as the differences between the way people learning a language speak and the way adult native speakers use the language. The inevitable errors can be turned to pedagogical advantage if the teacher provides appropriate feedback to help the learner modify his grammar. (AMH)

The introductory article in an issue devoted to language and communication situations. This topic is treated for the following reasons: linguistic competence means communicative competence; structure and external communication conditions have equal real value; and dichotomies are operative in different types of communication. (Text is in French.)…

Examination of the West German language and society suggests that the notion that the West German indigenous working class is separated from the middle class by a linguistic barrier is invalid. (Author/CB)

The linguistic complexity of humor is illustrated with examples of word play translated from French to English and English to French. Examples from the writings of James Joyce and Marcel Proust are highlighted. (CB)

Investigates the influence of the prefix "o-/ob-" on the choice of case for nominal objects of prefixed verbs, using a semantic field analysis. Focuses on four semantic functions: (1) objective; (2) locative; (3) factitive; and (4) comparative. The results are useful both to theoretical linguists and to teachers of Russian. (LMO)

Indicates a greater effect of hospitalization experience on children's general conception of hospital roles and plots than on specific linguistic markers of the sick-room register. Showed that girls performed better in the role of nurse and mother whereas boys performed relatively better in the role of doctor and father. (JD)

Analysis of 12 Scottish and 12 American 3- to 6-year-olds interacting with adults indicated that, because Scottish adults use the present perfect tense more frequently in their speech to children than American adults do, Scottish children use the tense in their speech long before American children do. (Author/CB)

Two experiments were conducted to test competing explanations of the levels effect in memory for text. In both experiments subjects (college students) read paragraphs in which the height of target propositions was held constant while the amount of target elaboration differed across versions of the paragraphs. (Author/LMO)