Examines discussion sections of social science research articles from the disciplines of history, political science, and sociology, according to a modified version of the communicative categories presented in previous studies. Findings reveal that, although there were fundamental similarities to the natural sciences, social science discussion…

Notes that few phonemes exhibit greater variance in the membership of phonemes that make up an equivalency class than the phoneme represented by /r/. Points out that the relationship between the auditory features of the speech signal and phonetic classification provides insight into a language's encoding and decoding system. (23 references)…

Attempts to demonstrate that a complete description of elliptical coordinations can be obtained only if the uses of elliptical and nonelliptical coordinations are investigated also. Future research on elliptical coordinations should be directed towards more full-scale analyses of the genres discussed here and other genres. (31 references) (CK)

Focuses on factors governing the choice of relative markers in restrictive relative clauses with relativized subjects from the 16th century to the present, using spoken and written data and including non-standard and regional varieties. The study addresses claims by Romaine (1982) that the "wh"-strategy has not affected spoken English,…

Shows that variation in the composition of the lexicon at token-level between more and less formal oral styles is identical to the variation between written and oral discourse. The article argues that speakers deictically anchor their utterances in a non-linguistic spatio-temporal context and that the degree of context-dependence is reflected in…

Argues that presentations in second language conferences should not be read because written discourse is too difficult for the audience to understand, whereas spoken discourse normally has a great deal of repetition to ensure that the main points are successfully transferred. Points out that read presentations are dull and inflexible, difficult to…

This study is part of a larger study of genre conventions of annual reports and environmental reports issued by British companies. The article attempts to apply Swales' move-step approach to a different genre belonging to a different discourse community. (43 references) (Author/CK)

Explores the phenomenon of post verbal alternation in English double object constructions and presents a statistical model for predicting the position of the indirect object in instances where alternation is unconstrained. The study includes analysis of a large set of written and oral American English data using a parametric multiple regression…

Dr. William Morgan, a Navajo linguist, devoted his career to the development and preservation of the Navajo language. Morgan collaborated with Dr. Robert Young in writing "The Navajo Language," an unabridged Navajo-English dictionary. He also taught Navajo at the Navajo Community College and worked for the Native American Materials…

Investigates variation in knowledge construction in three disciplines--sociology, economics, and physics--by drawing on Halliday' s notion of "metaphenomenon." Specifically, the study analyzed the frequency and type of agentive elements in textbooks to find the extent to which knowledge in these disciplines is attributed to individual scholars,…

Highlights the concept of discourse communities, which are used in applied linguistics to analyze written communication. Discusses how the concept developed. (Author/VWL)

Examines effects of grouping practice on written Chinese achievement among heritage learners in college Chinese classes. Subjects were two groups of heritage students, a homogeneous group and a heterogeneous group. Results suggest in college level Chinese language classes, tracking based on linguistic background can improve heritage students'…

A study compared the Spontaneous Writing Quotient (SWQ) of the Test of Writing Language-3 to teacher progress ratings of 147 students (grades 3-5) in the local writing curriculum. Corrected coefficients ranged from .39 to .48, offering only low to moderate support for the criterion-related validity relative to the local curriculum. (Contains…

This article presents an overview of several written language assessment techniques, as well as a rationale and method for assessing the written expression of hearing-impaired individuals. Fluency, syntactic maturity, vocabulary, content, and conventions of notation are discussed; direct and indirect measures are compared; and a sample composition…

Part of a research project is presented that aims at identifying the difficulties tertiary level students encounter in reading scientific texts in a foreign language and the strategies they apply to overcome them. Strategy markers are identified and listed, and are then analyzed to interpret the linguistic difficulty and the strategy used.…