Describes using "magic squares" for vocabulary development and assessment, in combination with various everyday Australian words that differ from American usage. (SR)

Discusses the value to film studies of a 1971 publication, "The World Viewed," a serious study of film which was not well received by the field and whose usefulness is still almost unknown. Finds that the author, Stanley Cavell, endeavors to find words of a common language and that his writings exemplify the importance of intuition and…

Compliments the author's son's public high school history teacher who gave him and his classmates an introduction to philosophic thought and a standard of excellence against which to measure the pop psychology of the day. Considers how arguing productively depends on one's grasp of language. Suggests to look to philosophy, history, and literature…

Presents 4 experiments to examine the mechanism behind choice of script type in Japanese writing. Suggests that there are no implicit relationships between semantic images of script types and personal names in Japanese writing. Hypothesizes two tentative cognitive models to explain how Japanese people select a particular type of script from three…

Examines the use of French and Dutch personal and possessive pronouns in the first person plural in internal communication documents. Focuses on the link between text types and the use of inclusive, exclusive, or ambiguous "we." Demonstrates that managers can exploit personal pronouns strategically and that the use of "we" is a…

Considers how social constructions of violence are reproduced within a court-ordered program fostering nonviolence for teens. Explores how awareness of spaces that define one's movements through them is inhibited as well as fostered by particular forms of discursive exchange. Considers what new spaces might be negotiated through an exchange of…

Discusses the processes of language development, revitalization, and intellectualisation against the background of foreign rule and state formation in Lithuania. (VWL)

Examines the use of clitic pronouns by incipient bilingual Spanish-speaking 4- and 5-year-old children with and without language impairments (SLI). Participants included 10 children with specific language impairment and 10 children with typical language development. Children with SLI used clitic pronouns less frequently than their age-matched…

Focuses on the language situation in Luxembourg, examining the interference between Letzeburgesch on one hand and, French German, and English on the other. Bourdieu's concept of legitimate language is modified to match the situation in Luxembourg of "triglossia with trilinguaism" and the legitimate multilingual language competence, which…

The meaning of Hispanic words often varies from country to country. To assist business travelers in Spain and Latin America, a lexicon is provided that details the various office-supply terms used in a variety of Spanish-speaking countries. The lexicon is based on interviews with over 200 Hispanic informants. (JL)

Notes that, although linguistics has had little influence on composition pedagogy, the study of functional grammar or linguistic performance (how language is actually used) is of direct value to composition theory. Offers an extended discussion of a functional approach to punctuation instruction, and proposes a functional approach in other areas…

Surveys children's information books. Finds that the language of the books is very diverse. Suggests that readers experience diversity of language from a very early age and that such books fall well short of any standard that is desirable of informative texts. (RS)

Replies to Joseph Harris' critique of James Britton's conception of "spectator role" (English Education; v20 n1). (MS)

Reviews several studies which suggest that some second-language (L2) learners stumble into rogue or "wild" grammars on the road to the L2. L2 learners who have subcategorization knowledge of verbs for their prepositions often omit those same prepositions in relative clauses and questions requiring pied-piping or preposition stranding.…

Attempts to formulate an appropriate linguistic generalization for the occurrence of inhibited periodic eyeblinking by fluent American Sign Language (ASL) signers. It is shown that signers' eyeblinks are sensitive to syntactic structure, from which intonational phrases may be derived. (19 references) (MDM)