Four aspects of sociopolitical language are: (1) keywords are defined by a movement; (2) a movement, realized in its language, must be analyzed as having both surface and hidden meanings; (3) the propagandistic function of sociopolitical language forces "value" on the keyword; and (4) a movement creates its linguistic field. (MSE)

Reports on the applications of psycholinguistic principles to the formulations of jury charges in criminal trials in British Columbia. These principles were applied to standardize jury instructions both from the point of view of the legal information conveyed as well as from the sentence and discourse processing done by the jury. (SED)

In a study of differences between perceptions of men's and women's language, undergraduates read short stories with speakers using seven categories of "male" and "female" language. Among the findings were that subjects rated males who spoke women's language as homosexual and tended to rate females who spoke men's language as uppity. (KH)

Reports the findings of a study done to test evaluative reactions to code-switching which involved alternation and/or mixing between the grammatical systems of English and Panjabi. Results are in line with similar studies and show that the same person is evaluated in different ways depending on how he or she speaks.

Analyzed university documents for sex-linked and sex-neutral language to measure the impact of regulation on language change. Compared documents from 1969-1972 (N=50) with matching documents from 1978-1979 (N=200). Findings showed newer documents contained significantly fewer sex-linked language items and markedly more sex-neutral items than the…

Discusses research and theory related to journal writing and provides a rationale for including it in the language arts classroom. (FL)

Examines the secondary terms "kill,""order," and "secret" in Kenneth Burke's "A Rhetoric of Motives" in order to provide a deeper understanding of the Burkean concept of act. Suggests how this concept of act might be applied to the teaching of writing. (MM)

Explains the need for teachers of technical writing to understand many terms unique to proposal writing. Provides brief definitions for the more common terms used in proposal preparation, including slang and abbreviations, focusing on practical rather than legal definitions. (HTH)

Discusses the implications of a new chapter added to the third edition of "Growth through English" concerning the language people use in performing various roles. (RB)

Discusses the improper use of superlatives in Spanish. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

The possibility should be considered that English grammar has been misanalyzed for centuries because of grammarians' accepting fundamentally flawed assumptions about grammar and, even more so, about the history of English--and that this has resulted in a huge disconnect between English grammars and the genius of English that really exists. The…

"Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." tells of King's childhood determination to use "big words" through biographical information and quotations. In this lesson, students in grades 3 to 5 explore information on Dr. King to think about his "big" words, then they write about their own…

Two of the most stigmatized languages in the United States today are African American dialect and Appalachian English dialect. The attitudes many hold about Appalachia have come from the literature written about the place, the people, the cultural life of the mountain region, in general, and the spoken dialect. Arnow's "The Dollmaker,"…

Article discussed the grammatical influence of Bishop Lowth, who changed the face of grammar by his method of prescription and proscription applied in the seventeenth century. (RK)