The purpose of these studies was to determine if a speaker using relatively restricted language would be judged more negatively by middle class listeners than a speaker using relatively elaborated language. The subjects for the first experiment were sixty-three volunteers from an indergraduate speech class. Two versions of a message were recorded…

Defines lexical diversity as manifest vocabulary range and lexical density as the ratio of lexical to gramatical items in a unit of discourse. Examines the effects of lexical diversity and density on listeners' evaluative judgments. (MH)

There is increasing debate over the unidimensionality of the construct "drive" in theories of behavior. The earliest drive theory postulated a simple entity which increased or decreased as a function of external or internal stimulation and affected behavior monotonically. Duffy and Malmo have recently hypothesized that the effects of…

Focusing on communicative competence as a major concept in speech communication, the author discusses the implications for theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical activities. Theoretical concerns generated by this focus are: characterization of the knowledge which comprises communicative competence, description of rules for appropriate…