Considers the socio-stylistic distinction of the French variable morpho-syntactic particle "ne." The interspeaker axes of variation in "ne" are summarized, and intraspeaker data deriving from a corpus of spoken French are considered. Examines intraspeaker variation in "ne" by focusing on the use of the variable by a single speaker in both speech…

Revealed a statistically significant difference between alcoholic and nonalcoholic oral syntactic performance, with alcoholic subjects committing greater numbers of syntactic and semantic errors than nonalcoholics. Indicated a deficiency in the integrative and descriptive aspects of alcoholics' oral language performance. (RL)

Provides a synthesis of findings about lexical and syntactico-semantic differences between spoken and written language. Outlines and critically examines the major theoretical and methodological approaches used in comparative studies of spoken and written language and reexamines the question of how speech and writing relate to prototypical forms of…

Estimating readability requires more than a formula comparing word length and sentence length. Other factors to be considered include vocabulary, the relationship between syntax and readability, the syntax used in children's oral language, and writing style. Steps are outlined for systematically estimating readability of instructional materials…

Examination of a new type of speech developing among students at the University of Yaounde reveals a highly coded usage that cuts outsiders off through the use of highly metaphorical, playful, and hermetic words that come from various sources and are reassigned different or refreshing meanings and the use of colorful expressions, word-blending,…

Advancement of students' abilities to cope with the demands of exposition and argument is noted when they are encouraged to accept mixed diction within a framework of activities that interrelate thinking, speaking, reading, writing, and listening, in the context of the immediate audience of class and teacher. Research indicates that when a weak…

This paper considers four levels of analysis in the observation of the prosodic features of pause in speech: phonetic; syntactic; semantic; and informative. On the phonetic level, a pause is related to length and intonation, and intonation in turn, being a result of the speaker's meaning, constitutes an expression of his/her emotional state. On…

Research reports included in this volume of working papers in linguistics are: "Perception of Consonant Clusters and Variable Gap Time" (Mike Cahill); "Near-Merger in Russian Palatalization" (Erin Diehm, Keith Johnson); "Breadth of Focus, Modality, and Prominence Perception in Neapolitan Italian" (Mariapaola…