Examines the problem posed to ethnographic research on speech communication by the traditional distinction between text and context as figure versus ground, or as hierarchical organization of focal events, or as phenomena within which those events are embedded. An ethnographic perspective on discourse within which text and context form an…

Explores alternative actions which can be produced by practices of talking associated with the action of "initiating repair": questioning terms and certain forms of repeats. Shows that initiating repair can be produced by a practice which does not ordinarily produce it. Argues that situated analysis must go hand-in-hand with more formal…

Examines the mechanisms involved in changing from direct to indirect discourse, taking as a starting point research findings in linguistic pragmatics, which involve the practical application of speech symbol use between speaker and hearer. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Fourier analysis, a common technique in engineering, breaks down a complex wave form into its simple sine wave components. Communication researchers have recently suggested that this technique may provide an index of the rhythm of conversation, since vocalizing and pausing produce a complex wave form pattern of alternation between two speakers. To…

Presents the computer program SEPARATE.BAS. and discusses how the use of microcomputer technology for processing textual data offers increased capabilities for the qualitative researcher in speech communication. Discusses how SEPARATE.BAS. assists in the research task of dividing transcripts of interviews or discussions into separate text files…

Critically reevaluates data obtained using the Spoonerisms of Laboratory Induced Predisposition (SLIP) paradigm. Discusses how the results from three studies that utilized this experimental technique differed from those in the original study. Suggests that many of the speech errors detected result from confusion rather from the elicitation of true…

Examines concerns raised about the Spoonerisms of Laboratory Induced Predisposition (SLIP) technique by Sinsabaugh and Fox. Indicates that these concerns are generally unfounded and discusses implications for optimal use of the SLIP technique. (JD)

Cohesion analysis has been used to investigate the language of schizophrenics and that associated with other psychiatric syndromes. Cohesion, one means of creating text, cannot account for all aspects of the pretheoretical notion of coherence. As a research tool, cohesion meets the dual criteria of an analysis of language in context and…

In this article, I respond to Wanda Pillow's (2000) challenge to "Educational Researcher" and other educational journals to provide more working examples of postmodern research not in an effort to contain such research, but in an effort to irrupt or break apart efforts at containment. Specifically, I present a methodological approach for listening…

One approach to field theory in argumentation begins with a description of argumentation and, by identifying similarities or regularities in discursive practice, attempts to induce the nature and characteristics of a field. The controversy surrounding the use of Laetrile, a proposed cancer treatment, provides an example of this approach. Assuming…

Traditionally, the study of public address has meant the study of great speakers, focusing on individual speech texts, or the speaking careers of individual orators. So dominant was this traditional study of public address that, in its halcyon decades of the l930s, 1940s, and 1950s, it all but eliminated other approaches to rhetorical criticism.…

Rhetorical force can be used to analyze interaction in organizational communication. In such an analysis, force is conceived of as being perceptual, arising out of interaction, aiding in understanding communication patterns, and increasing one's abilities both to anticipate actions and to plan or constrain one's actions. Rhetoric is a product of…

In studying sociolinguistic rules, researchers must be aware of some guiding principles: that (1) these rules are below the conscious level of awareness, and (2) rules of speaking differ across cultural groups, with none being more correct than another. Even when members of different cultural groups interact in the same language they may find it…

Discusses how Type-Token Ratios (TTRs) have been used in a variety of research efforts in speech communication, including studies of the interactions between source credibility, motivation, cognitive states, and context with language use. Describes the two versions of a TTR computation program that are available in BASIC. Presents sources…

Discusses the sources of information in oral language. Uses converging evidence from prosody, pausing, structural and semantic parallelism, and stylistic analysis to argue for a series of hypotheses about the units that organize the construction of narrative discourse. Provides examples and appendixes. (JD)