The inadequacy of the use of the linguist's introspective judgments of meaning and grammaticality as a basis for language studies in syntax and semantics is described, as is the need for improved methods. The evaluation of alternative methodologies by replication experiments is explored. (Author/RM)

In research on the historical present tense, neither interviews nor tape-recorded group sessions proved neutral or adequate. An explanation is found in the notion of a speech event, and simple techniques of participation are advocated. (Author/RM)

A discussion of whether there has been any progress in the discipline of historical linguistics focuses on the theories and recent publications of David Lightfoot and Roger Lass. The author's approaches to language change and language study are examined and compared. (MSE)

Work supported in part by a Social Science Research Council research fellowship to R. L. Cooper. (VM)

Suggests the use of principal components analysis as an alternative solution to the problem of grouping speakers by sociological characteristics prior to quantitative analysis. An example is presented of its application to vowel variation data collected as part of a sociolinguistic survey of English in Sydney, Australia. (Author/CB)

The quantification of communication network integration provides valuable information for the study of language change in very small rural communities such as Grossdorf, Austria. The approach is particularly relevant when study of aggregate group behavior has failed to yield results due to small sample size or group internal inconsistency. (26…