Prescriptive discourse, which favors certain variants over others, like "different from" vs. "different than," has usually been characterized in terms of correctness in spelling, punctuation, word meaning, or grammar. Yet usage guides in the 20th century have added numerous entries that focus more on style considerations than…

In recent years, online mass media has made a significant contribution to explaining events and how these events are interpreted and understood by the public. One of them is the incident regarding the case of public officials with a lifestyle of hedonism (those familiar with corrupt behavior). The purpose of this study is to examine the image of…

This paper is about identifying a nuance of social meaning which, I demonstrate, was conveyed in the Early and Late Modern period by the suffix "-oon." The history of non-native suffix "-oon" is presented by means of assembling non-native suffix "-oon" vocabulary in date order and sorting according to etymology. It…

Finding an old notice on a canal towpath inspired a consultation with colleagues and search for evidence in an old book to help people look into how the words and symbols used in the teaching of electricity have evolved, including the apparent oddity of the symbol "I" for current. It is easy to explain that people use the symbol "Q" for what is…

This article examines definitions state education agencies use to describe the federal education disability called "emotional disturbance." State definitions were collected so that various aspects of them could be analyzed and compared with results of similar studies completed in the 1970s and 1980s. Among results are that state definitions have…

This dissertation examines the particle "ye" in the IV century BCE Chinese Guodian manuscripts by providing a synchronic analysis of its functions and a diachronic hypothesis relating all functions to focus marking. I have subdivided the around 600 occurrences of "ye" into four main functions: focus marker, topic marker, clause connection…

Examines the semantics of functional language and discusses the role of linguistics in describing language needs and function. (AM)

Uses six examples to substantiate the hypothesis that masculine root words in reference to males in Russian cover a broader semantic space than do feminine root words in reference to females. Women share in the same wide space only when implicitly included in a masculine root. (Author/BK)

Calls "pro-words" those which refer to a preceding substantive. They are (1) pronouns, (2) pronominal adverbs - "dadurch,""hiermit,""wofur," etc., and (3) pro-adverbs - "dort,""dann," etc. Both (2) and (3) stand for combinations of preposition plus preceding substantive; (3) does this only semantically, while (2) marks the relation overtly. (Text…

It is suggested that invited inference is a case of valid inference by saying that English "if...then" sentences are logically ambigous. The ambiguity of "if...then" sentences may be related syntactically or semantically to "or.""Or,""if...then," and "and" all invite inferences. (SC)

Evaluates two hypotheses that argue that the Spanish demonstrative verbs "aqui" and "aca" can alternate in some contexts. The results of a quantitative study of Venezuelan Spanish show that the delimination hypothesis, which states that the place denoted by "aqui" is less limited and defined than the place denoted by "aca," is valid. (29…

Polar interrogative sentences differ from declarative sentences in terms of illocutionary forces and the linguistic analysis of their meaning. It is possible to isolate small numbers of syntactic and semantic categories and an unlimited number of illocutionary forces resulting from their interaction with the total situation. (CK)