This paper suggests an explicit way of integrating sociolectal and dialectal facts in the overall description of a language. Phonetic, morphological, syntactic and semantic units of the whole language are defined. (CK)

This article discusses the fact the extralinguistic factors can cause interference in second language learning and usage as well as linguistic ones. Specific reference is made to the Hakka villagers in the New Territories of Hong Kong. (CLK)

This paper begins with a discussion of the assumptions basic to the study of both language and social dialects: verbal systems are arbitrary, all languages or dialects are adequate as communicative systems, they are systematic and ordered and learned in the context of the community. A survey of current work and findings in dialect studies follows.…

This paper discusses the relationship between linguistic reconstructions and their historical validity using the case of Old Japanese (8th century A.D.) vowels as an example. Reconstructions throughout the paper include only those cases in which the modern reflexes and phonological correspondences between two or more genetically related languages…

Fieldwork with a Hydaburg resident yielded this descriptive paper, which focuses on Haida syntax, and especially predication. The verbal word in Haida is of three distinct types--active, stative, and neutral--the first two of which may occur in either SOV or OSV word order. Neutral verbal words are relatively rare and take active pronouns plus a…

Refutes Chomsky and Halle's (1968) analyses of Early Middle and Middle English, and presents an alternative analysis based on phonetic facts rather than underlying assumptions. (AM)

Describes the processes by which distinctive varieties of English develop in areas where English functions as a second language. The distinctions between rhetorical and communicative norms for speech events in these varieties are discussed. (Author/AM)

Examines a pattern of end-of-word deletion in Faetar, a Francoprovencal dialect spoken in southern Italy, and considers synchronic variants. The article uses the word "deletion" as a synchronic description of the fact that speakers do not always phonetically produce everything in the input form. Optimality Theory accounts for such…

The author aims: (1) to show that generative phonology uses essentially the method of internal reconstruction which has previously been employed only in diachronic studies in setting up synchronic underlying phonological representations; (2) to show why synchronic analysis should add the comparative method to its arsenal, together with whatever…

This volume presents principles and models for describing language variation, and introduces a time-based, dynamic framework for linguistic description. The book first summarizes some of the problems of grammatical description encountered from Saussure through the present and then outlines possibilities for new descriptions of language which take…

A brief analysis and definition of general linguistics focuses on distinct areas of study within the science, including descriptive, historical, comparative, and computational linguistics. Other branches of the science discussed are psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and dialectology. Technical concepts encountered in the literature are also…

THIS COLLECTION OF 36 ESSAYS BY SOME OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING LINGUISTS NOW WORKING IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE BRITISH ISLES PRESENTS A COMPOSITE PICTURE OF THE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF MODERN LINGUISTICS. DESIGNED FOR A READING AUDIENCE OF FRESHMEN OR UPPER-DIVISION ENGLISH STUDENTS, FUTURE TEACHERS, OR THE LAYMAN INTERESTED IN LANGUAGE AND ITS…

This book contains essays which focus on the systems of communication that operate within and between various social segments of Afro-American communities in the United States. The essays are presented under the following headings: (1) "Getting Into It: Black Talk, Black Life and the Academic," (2) "'Talking My Talk': Black Talk Varieties and…

In the French verb phrase, negation is often marked twice, by a proclitic element (ne) and by a second negative (such as "pas" or "rien"). Until the seventeenth century, the first element was obligatory, while a second negative was optionally added for emphasis or precision. Subsequently, the second negatives lost their…

This document contains three reports in prepublication form on research conducted by linguists at the University of Colorado. The first paper presents an argument against the theories concerning the concept of the distributional syllable. Such theories are based on the assumptions that the syllable can and should be defined formally, without…