The theory and practice of analyzing jokes, with implications for class discussions. (RL)

Examines the use of the second person pronoun in Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale" to demonstrate that students of medieval texts may well miss important areas of meaning if they fail to give adequate attention to the historical study of language. (GT)

Discusses ways to insure that the current emphasis on grammar, concrete structure, and explicit simplicity do not edge out the development of writing that is forceful and engaging. (FL)

Judgments of utterance appropriateness were examined in three, four, five, and six year olds to examine bases for these judgments in a variety of social contexts. The judgments of the six year olds more closely resembled those of a group of adults, but their judgments were not yet free of some of the factors operative for the younger children.…

The modal "should" can be taught by first delineating its meaning of "good advice," then proceeding to its meaning as expressing the speaker's sense of duty, propriety, and expediency, and finally dealing with its meaning of "reasonable expectation." The elements of "must" implicit in "should"…

Discusses the use of cue cards in order to help language students practice formal and informal ways of saying the same thing. This draws attention to the influence of context on the way a communicative interaction is expressed linguistically. Lesson forms and source materials are also delineated. (PJM)

Observes that college students seem to produce a very pure form of epideictic discourse, an Aristotelian mode appropriate to speeches before the general public. Considers the implications of this observation, why teachers should understand college students' fascination with the epideictic, and how teachers can show them its appropriate and…

The ways in which Black consciousness and experience emerge in the works of three Black poets are explored in this article. Historical, cultural, psychological, and linguistic influences are considered. (GC)

Discusses the important role that language has in our society and compares human communication to animal group communication. Gives specific examples of corruption in the Spanish language today. (NCR)

Focuses on the semantic effects of collective bargaining in higher education, attempting to determine what the semantic reactions are to the language of the labor union as used by unversity faculty and to the language of industrial management as used by academic administrators. (GT)

Compares Lodge's (1979) examples of children's use of the past tense in pretend play with examples of the use of other moods and of modal auxiliaries. (AM)

Presents 26 German words and phrases that are used in Spanish today. Definitions are provided and examples of their use in Spanish texts are given. (NCR)

The relationship between forms of language and social stratification is examined using the English language as an example of an open system of status denotation and the Korean language as an example of a closed system. (SW)

Indicates that pictures that elicit children's language depict more actions, children, and people than do pictures that elicit lesser amounts of language from children. (FL)

Traces the history of the development of ecclesiastical law, and describes some of the difficulties in modern day translation of the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church. (AM)