In order to achieve literacy, children must have mastered the decoding and encoding processes of the language of instruction. Usually this has been accomplished long before the child enters school. However, if the child's language is atypical for any reason, such as cultural or linguistic factors, then the acquisition of literacy requires a…

This paper describes the preliminary results of research currently underway concerning sex-based differences in written composition. Sixty themes written by college-age native speakers of English were chosen for study. The themes were typed exactly as they had been written. No corrections were made. They were numbered alphabetically by the names…

The aim of this paper is to clear up some of the confusion that has developed around interpretations of Bernstein's concept of code-distribution. After a rapid review of the main dimensions of linguistic variation within a given society, with particular attention to sociolectal and register variation, 'codes' are examined and compared with…

Knowledge about how language works is often considered superfluous by the public. In general, the public image of language is that language is in a serious decline and that outside influences on language have led it astray, views that are supported by false assumptions about language on the part of writers. Writers in newspapers and magazines note…

This paper is primarily concerned with Basil Bernstein's sociolinguistic account of school failure. The first section describes some earlier work relevant to his theories. In the second section, Bernstein's sociolinguistic codes thesis is described, and an attempt is made to show that it suffers from the merging of two logically distinct strands…

Designed as a research tool for teachers of writing, this annotated bibliography describes texts and readers which pertain to college level English courses (with indications of those suitable for use in high schools). Each entry has been placed in one or more of the following categories: grammar and basic usage, composition, advanced composition…

Public interest in language is strong, as evidenced by recent articles on spoken and written forms of contemporary English in major news magazines. The December 8, 1975 issue of "Newsweek" contains several allegations, notably by Mario Pei, castigating linguists for causing the decline in writing ability in the United States. In this paper an…

Speech play reflects a degree of selectivity and creativity beyond ordinary language use. Consistent with the approach of ethnography, each culture may have its own definition of speech play. Articles collected in this volume investigate speech play as language structure--"Play Languages: Implications for (Socio) Linguistics,""Secret Play…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between self concept and communicative behavior of Upward Bound students as shown through computer-assisted content analysis. Nineteen Upward Bound students at Bowling Green State University during the summer of 1971 composed the population for this study. The methodology used in this…

Politeness is discussed as an integral part of human conversational interaction. Awareness of politeness is important to understanding proper language usage. Several sentences may perform the same function but vary in tone from a command to an extremely polite request. Foreign language instruction should expose learners to politeness and the…

A native speaker of a language possesses both grammatical and rhetorical competence. A grammatical model, in its deep structure, represents an "is a" relationship. It seeks to offer some explanation of a human being as a human being. A rhetorical model represents a "counts as" relationship. It seeks to offer some explanation of…

This paper examines the language used by workers in a china factory in order to present the characteristics and underlying features of occupational jargon. The paper shows: (1) jargon is affected by regional-local pronunciation, grammatical expressions and lexical items, and by individual speech styles which result from general linguistic…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the writing of elementary children, grades four through six, to determine the relationship between specified genre and the development and use of figurative language. Three teachers, one each in grades four, five, and six in the Metropolitan School District of Perry Township, Indiana, collected…

The first section of this paper is a general discussion of standard English. The nine sections which follow discuss the concept of correctness and the ideological differences between grammarians and purists; standard English in a historical perspective; Eric Partridge's (1969) taxonomy of the degrees and kinds of standard English, including…

This is an analysis of the stylistic variation in English of a wide range of speakers. A main point is that in analyzing speech styles it is important to elecit more than one style from each speaker, as both interview conditions and other factors may influence style. The paper presents some concrete examples of two major stylistic divisions,…