This study identified reasons to believe that one particular way of teaching writing is theoretically sound; explicated the use theory of meaning; defined a theory of rhetoric which was compatible with the use theory; presented a set of beliefs about the nature of thought and about how the mind learns; and presented exemplary classroom activities…

In analyzing utterances whose singular property is to become true simply by being uttered, this article discusses the theory of explicit performatives and proposes an alternative explanation which focuses on meaning rather than on the fact of these utterances are speech acts. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Part of a dissertation, Stanford University; research supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. (DD)

Study supported by a National Institute of Mental Health grant to New York University. (VM)

Examines word families, words grouped together by common meaning, orthography, form, and spelling. Discusses ways to encourage children's language acquisition and understanding of how words work in specific contexts. (HTH)

Several hypotheses are developed concerning the semantic-pragmatic shifts that take place in the development of grammatical markers such as prepositions, auxiliary verbs and sentence connectives. Over time, grammatical markers shift from being primarily referential to more pragmatic meanings, from propositional to textual to attitudinal. (PMJ)

Discusses problems in contemporary translation theory, particularly in terms of the number of semantic distinctions a given language may draw. (CLK)

Twenty-five teachers working in deaf education signed a set of stimuli and their performances were videotaped and analyzed. Data revealed that users of Signing Exact English were able to follow the rules of that system a significantly higher percentage of time than users of Seeing Essential English or Signed/Manual English. (Author/JDD)

Presents basic rules governing the use of German predicates that are interpreted as but not synonymous with "be" or "put" in English, focusing on the verbs' special characteristics and correct usage in authentic German sentences. (12 references) (Author/CB)

Studies the efficacy of E-Prime (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be") by looking at copula deletion and "flaming" by 214 users of electronic mail. Concludes that no relationship exists between copula deletion and flaming, which does not support the use of E-Prime. (HB)