English has gradually become the lingua franca of medical publications and conferences across Europe, with scholars from "smaller" languages opting for English because of the greater scientific impact and prestige associated with a wide international audience; at the same time, however, this transition has disrupted well-established textual…

Uses trademarks that are calculated misspellings, bumper sticker slogans, the strained and pretentious language of Howard Cosell, and governmental jargon to illustrate how to attune students to the magic and power of language, while poking fun at language abuse. (RL)

Syntactic synonymy enables the speaker to use syntactic devices to say the same thing in a number of different ways. It is based on three criteria: (1) similarity of semantic content, (2) certain syntactic similarity between the components of the synonymous structures, and (3) differences in surface structures. The third criterion separates…

Suggests that stylistic variation should be used by linguistis in their search for linguistic structure. (AM)

Describes the use of a small set of linguistic variables in different types of radio programs from Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio network), to see whether variation does correlate with style as it does in the community. Results show that broadcasters followed community norms for these variables. (SED)

Explores the general features and some unique usages of West African English, Caribbean English, and Indian English. (EL)

Shows that "usted" has two functions: showing lack of solidarity and showing extreme solidarity, with "tu" falling somewhere in between on the continuum. Discusses the increasing use of "tu," especially among younger people, and presents some possible reasons for this. (SED)

Teachers must learn to accept the fact that variation in language is part of the communicative competence of a linguistically mature individual. (RC)

Examines these distinct registral features of matrimonial newspaper advertisements in English in India: incongruity, deletion of preposition, miscellaneous deletions, two-word sentence, new abbreviations, registral confusion, stylistic variation. (RM)

Illustrates with numerous examples and analyses the various uses of "quien." Discusses alternation between "quien" and the groups "el cual"/"el que," variation in the verb agreement, the function of "quien" as an indefinite pronoun, as well as questions of stylistic preference and correctness. (MES)

A linguistic analysis of the legends used on advertising posters. The data used is from Winston and Marlboro commercials. (Text is in French.) (TL)

The history of "Verlan," a form of French word play involving inversion of syllables with varying degrees of complexity, is described and its phonological and morphological patterns are outlined. Appropriate and inappropriate contexts for use of Verlan, extralinguistic functions, and the results of lexicalization of verlanized words are…

Considers the socio-stylistic distinction of the French variable morpho-syntactic particle "ne." The interspeaker axes of variation in "ne" are summarized, and intraspeaker data deriving from a corpus of spoken French are considered. Examines intraspeaker variation in "ne" by focusing on the use of the variable by a single speaker in both speech…

The uses of the eleven Spanish clitic pronouns are discussed for various regional dialects and formal and colloquial speech in Spain and Latin America. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

A discussion of social factors in language usage in the framework of sociolinguistics as defined by Labov. Some topics considered are: language as social practice, elements of a socio-differential phonology of /r/, variation in formal style, and an outline of a sociology of variation. (Text is in French.) (AMH)