Examines words per pause (W/P) as a means of identifying solidarity between speakers and listeners. Speakers use significantly more words per pause with friends than when speaking with strangers. W/P can be used to investigate speaking style in various contexts and to diagnose sympathy and estrangement between speakers. (JL)

Two speech events, narration and joking conversation, are analyzed from speech samples of Hawaiian 5- to 7-year-olds. An underlying iterative routine was found which allows for both stories and joking to be produced jointly in a contrapuntal style. (Author/RM)

Discusses speech styles and social structures in Ilongot discourse. (DD)

Examines the relationship between topic and gender on the basis of observation of naturally occurring conversations among all-male, all-female, and mixed-gender groups. An analysis of the relative importance or triviality of these conversations as perceived by the conversants themselves is presented. (Author/CB)

French native speakers' reactions to phone calls in the United States indicate a difference in the norms of interaction between the two countries. This difference, in turn, is understood when one realizes that the phone call, constituting a speech event, is open to different cultural interpretations. (CHK)

The analysis of videotaped, naturally occurring, adult-child interaction led to the isolation of the clarification request as a consistent feature of adult interactive styles. The importance of these demands, their nature, how adults deal with them, and their effects on children's communicative development are discussed. (CHK)