Discusses the "dehydrated manner of producing writing which is fostered by English teachers' evaluation standards; prompted by an examination of a research report, "The Analysis of Essays by Computer (University of Connecticut, Storrs). (Author/SW)

Six experiments investigated whether the pronoun "he," when used generically, may lead individuals to think more often of male referents. While no support was found for a pure pronoun effect, some evidence was found for a masculine bias when the word "man" was combined with "he." (Author/MJL)

Reviewed are the relevance and limitations of work in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and conversational analysis with respect to a central issue in the sociological study of social interaction: the taken-for-granted and inferences made therefrom. The hope is to show the arbitrariness of the line dividing microsociological studies and…

Describes a study that examines the pragmatic language functions used by school-age children during a structured dialog consisting of a question-answer paradigm. Develops a 10-category taxonomy to classify subjects' responses and finds the taxonomy to be effective in two ways: (1) the number of categories is sufficient, and (2) the interscorer…

Concludes that audiences tend to evaluate a radio newscast more positively and to perceive it as more immediate when it contains words that suggest timeliness. (FL)

The Black English semi-auxiliary "come" is used to express speaker indignation, as opposed to the motion verb "come." Examines the history of the semi-auxiliary and why it has remained undetected for so long. (EKN)

Discusses the benefits of short answers and how they differ in German and English. Provides hints on how to teach students to produce reduced answers that are grammatically acceptable in spoken German. (EKN)

Offers a rebuttal to an earlier article in which the author had argued that language use must not be distorted to serve political purposes. (HOD)

Critically examines some of the assumptions made of linguistics and literature in the book "Literary Text and Language Study." (HOD)

A report of an investigation of conversations involving more than two persons. Two types of illocutionary acts are accounted for: the traditional kind directed at the addressee(s) and another, called an informative, addressed to all participants. Evidence is presented that every illocutionary act is performed by means of an informative. (AMH)

Discusses the vision of harmony in the memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder and argues that her books are more nearly romance than fiction. (HOD)

Seven teachers voice their opinions (mostly negative) about contemporary, self-appointed language critics. (RL)

Illustrates with numerous examples and analyses the various uses of "quien." Discusses alternation between "quien" and the groups "el cual"/"el que," variation in the verb agreement, the function of "quien" as an indefinite pronoun, as well as questions of stylistic preference and correctness. (MES)