Discusses ways to define, describe and evaluate plain style. Provides results of T-unit and stylistic analysis of several authors, including Orwell and Swift. Distinguishes between scientific ideals of plain style as depersonalized clarity and plain style essayists' cultivation of personal voice. Applies theories of F. Christensen and J. Williams…

Investigates the hypothesis that letters to lower-status recipients would consist of a greater number of more familiar modes than letters to higher-status recipients and that letters to recipients of high solidarity with the writer would consist of a greater number of more familiar modes than letters to recipients of low solidarity with the…

Probes the effects which syntax and semantics can have on readers of news stories and points to several ways in which reading education can help students develop skill in critically interpreting what they read. (MD)

Argues that forms represented orthographically as "wanna,""hafta,""gonna,""gotta,""usta," and "sposta" are linked to "want to,""have to," for example, by derivational morphology. Also argues that these to-derivatives inflect on their heads, not their edges, and that they are synonymous with their bases but have different subcategories and more…

Views the Dutch language as analogous to the polder typical of the Netherlands, an area of low-lying land reclaimed from a body of water and protected by dikes. Phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and stylistic analyses are presented. (MSE)

A data-based study done in Philadelphia examined the constraints on relative pronoun deletion and looked for a possible correlation to social stratification or stylistic variation. Restrictive relative clauses only are examined. Constraints appear to be due to performance factors related to sentence processing. (SCC)

THIS TEXT COMPRISES A SURVEY OF THE ESTONIAN LANGUAGE, WHICH IS GROUPED HERE WITH LIVONIAN, VOTIC, AND A PART OF WESTERN FINNISH, TO FORM THE SOUTHWESTERN BRANCH OF THE FINNIC (OR BALTO-FINNIC) LANGUAGES. THE AUTHORS' CLASSIFICATIONS AND A HISTORY OF THE STUDIES WHICH HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT IN ESTONIAN ARE PRESENTED, FOLLOWED BY A PRESENTATION OF…

The nature of linguistic variation is examined, particularly the ways in which phonology, morphology, syntax, and other aspects of language vary according to social and situational contexts. A distinction must be made between a difference in frequency of a linguistic variable that carries meaning, and a difference in frequency which carries no…

Translation, viewed as a process of linguistic summation, is considered on the levels of morphology, syntax, phonology, and vocabulary. Random variables which bear on loss/gain ratios are examined in formulae illustrating the relationship of subjectivity and objectivity in the translation process. Implications of theory are illustrated through…

Describes a study that attempts to systematize the criteria required for accurate translations of technical documents. The results of a Linguistic Appreciation Questionnaire-Test, administered to 19 professional translators, were used to categorize the most common translation variables: style, structure, rhythm, and meaning of text in the hope of…

Applied Syntactic Language Computer Analysis and counts of legal jargon and power speech to analyze the language styles of plaintiffs, defendants, and attorneys in 20 civil trials. Concluded that successful trial participants speak differently than those who fail and that the differences in language style are significant and consistent. (PD)

Poor writing style among academics, particulary those in the behavioral sciences, stems from a lack of linguistic sophistication, the linguistic customs of academia, and the linguistic customs of the behavioral science disciplines. The article offers remedies for errors in each category. (SB)

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,…

African Wolof society is divided into a number of ranked status groups or castes, the largest of which is the high-ranking noble caste. Wolof conceive of two styles of speaking, the restrained or noble-like and the elaborated or "griot"-like, and the two styles are connected by the presence or absence of "kerse," honor and self-control. The…