This paper discusses the notion that comprehension of language involves an active interpretative process entailing both a generating of expectations and a matching of expectations to the "incoming message." There are, however, two forms of discourse in which the relation of text to message differs from that holding in ordinary language.…

This paper presents a tentative model of the writing process that has been developed according to the technique of protocol analysis. (A protocol is a description of the activities, ordered in time, in which a subject engages while performing a task.) The model identifies subprocesses of the composing process and their organization; minor…

Intended as a survey of the use of "weasel words" (a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt to mean an equivocal word intended to deprive a statement of its force), this book discusses these words both as a part of the historical process of language change and as a misleading and confusing element in current media. Humorous in tone, the book presents…

This study compared two methods of providing individualized feedback on written assignments. Eighty-one students were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups--audiotape feedback or written feedback--for a one semester university course. The amount of faculty time required for implementation, the effects of such feedback on student…

This collection of essays on Australasian English deals with various aspects of the language as it is spoken in the areas of Australian, New Zealand, and Papua-New Guinea. Although the bulk of the essays are concerned with Australian and New Zealand English, the editor expresses the hope that the integrated study of these two major dialects will…

Correct spelling, punctuation marks, and spelling accents must be taught in the beginning Spanish course. Accent marks make a difference in the interpretation of the written word. Rules govern the placing of exclamation and question marks and make up an integral part of written Spanish. Teachers have a duty and a responsibility to teach these…

The dynamics of Mexican American nationalism reflected in the publications of the Academia de la Nueva Raza and in a 1971 work by Ricardo Sanchez are examined in this article. The connection between language and ideology is discussed in the context of Chicano nationalist writing. (GC)

In Taiwanese, approximately 5 percent of the morphemes--many of them high-frequency function words--have no appropriate, established Chinese characters to represent them. This article concerns the way in which new characters are invented or existing characters are adopted to represent Taiwanese morphemes. (Author/KM)

Describes various distinctively shaped clay tokens used in western Asia centuries before the Sumerians invented writing. These tokens appear to have served as a basis for Sumerian ideographs. ( MA)

Discusses an experiment in progress to prove that irony in written texts is discernible to the non-native speaker through logical or linguistic cues. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Evaluates various explanations for the fact that Chinese writing has remained at the ideographic stage for several thousand years. Reasons include dialect differences, social and political unrest, and attempts by the ruling class and men of letters to preserve complex character writing as an indication of class superiority. (Author/DB)

Discusses various aspects of language--written and spoken--and concludes that departments of English have not yet met their responsibilities concerning the teaching of writing. (JM)

This paper describes four writing systems and discusses research on phonetic coding, eye movements, and cortical processing in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scripts. Research on word recognition in English, Japanese Kanji and Kana, and Korean Hangul are presented. (Author/MT)

Partially hearing (N=16), deaf (N=20), and normal hearing (N=10) children's ability to say, write, and comprehend the same sentences were compared. Among results were that the partially hearing made more errors in both the spoken and written conditions than hearing subjects who were two years younger. (Author/DB)