As part of an evaluation of its scientific and technical information program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted a review and analysis of structural, language, and presentation components of its technical report form. The investigation involved comparing and contrasting NASA's publications standards for technical…

The issue of language dominance testing is explored with special attention to: (1) a history of language testing in the United States from 1943 to 1974, (2) methods presently utilized for the determination of language dominance, (3) problems encountered in language dominance testing, and (4) some specific research that has been carried out related…

Donnellan's distinction between attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions is extended to include Lewis' basic categories. The distinction as applied to sentences is brought out by investigating the consequences of the failure of presupposed sentences. Stalnaker uses Donnellan's distinction to support his theory of creating an…

In recent years both scientists and laypeople have viewed with dismay the notion that science seems mysteriously different from other areas of human concern. Scientific language is part of the mystique. Yet scientific language is human language before it is science. The mystique that people ascribe to scientific language is of their own making,…

Noting that language and politics both grow out of the underlying processes of social agreement and dispute, this paper analyzes the political language of the New Christian Right (NCR) movement as it is found in the national print media. Various sections of the paper discuss the following: (1) the background of the NCR, the characteristics of the…

This monograph contains a report of the field work stage of a research project, on the educational significance of the modern Australian oral tradition, which involved the collection of recordings of people telling tales, reminiscing, recalling personal events of significance, and recounting traditional Australian legends from non-Aboriginal…

Arguing that to consider only the writer's mental processes is an intellectualist view of the composing process that does not present a fully human way of knowing, this paper takes the position that the writer is more than a mind at work and that an account of the writer as knower must include a consideration of the interaction between mind and…

The sources used, the procedures followed, and the results obtained in updating the kindergarten through grade six communication skills lexicon are covered in this report. The final list of 322 new terms included in the lexicon are appended. (Author)

Eliminating errors is neither as simple nor as important as back-to-basics critics believe; however, correctness does need to be considered in composition instruction. Error affects a reader's judgment of writing quality and interferes with the communication between reader and writer. It may also hinder the composing process of some writers. Major…

The factors which influence a speaker's decision to use one categorization for an object as opposed to others that are available are analyzed. The categories that are most used in speech are basic level categories established at the most abstract level at which the category members: (1) share a number of physical and functional attributes, (2)…

As an emotional topic, concern with acceptable usage of language has never been far from the public consciousness, but the public's willingness to abide by educators' views on the necessity of teaching usage rules has varied over the years. The situation we face is not a new one--the eighteenth century saw the initial widespread concern with…

A study was conducted to determine whether there was a linguistic correlation between a financially good year and a bad year as expressed in the annual reports of company presidents to their shareholders. Specifically the study tested the "Pollyanna Principle," which states (1) that regardless of whether the year was financially good or bad, the…

Noting that the mental health practitioner needs highly developed linguistic and communicative skills in order to precipitate therapeutic changes, this paper discusses the nature of the contexts of therapeutic interaction. It examines verb tense as a linguistic context marker and shows how various schools of therapy can use it. In addition, it…

This speech, presented at the 1977 meeting of the World Organization of Preschool Education (OMEP), proposes that the preschool linguistic environment determines language facility, which affects later school and work success. The normal course of communicative ability is traced. It is proposed that although most children, in and out of preschool,…

An annotated bibliography of materials that are useful in studying developmental pragmatics is presented. Two areas of pragmatics which are not included are referential communication and sociolinguistics. The annotations are brief and are intended to indicate the general content of the entry, but not experimental results or overall quality. Some…