With increasing enrollments in journalism, many journalism instructors contend that problems of spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation are particularly acute. Some of the questions raised at recent gatherings include: Are formal rules of English grammar dying? Is proper punctuation mere pedantry? What can journalism schools do about grammar and…

Evidence is offered to support the view that linguistic competence cannot in principle be divorced from linguistic performance in order to abstract universal properties of grammars, that rules of grammar inevitably incorporate perceptual strategies and constraints, and that grammaticality and acceptability are related to predictability. A theory…

The present paper reports on an experiment designed to test the semantic analysis of Spanish mood vs. the traditional analysis in terms of government, by testing preferences for the Present Indicative or the Present Subjunctive following expressions of varying certainty. Two separate tests were conducted, in which subjects were given the option of…

Paralleling and reflecting the many recent changes in national life have been corresponding developments in the American language. As new concerns and problems have arisen, new vocabularies have come into being. Countless new words and novel expressions as well as new meanings and uses for established words have been created. This collection…

The topic of black dialect, a timely concern in education and society, should include an understanding of the relationship between language and culture and an understanding of the differences within ethnic and environmental influences contributing to linguistic diversity. Characteristics in black dialect which reflect its descent from African…

This book, geared particularly toward beginning college and university students, treats style within the framework of general language variation, the discussion focusing chiefly on linguistic differences (both written and spoken) observed in everyday life, rather than on those found in poetry and belles lettres. The discussion is divided between…

Problems associated with identifying names among Spanish-speaking people and addressing them are discussed. Their customs regarding names and differences which exist in Puerto Rican and Spanish cultures are included. Variations and compound names are treated. Suggestions are given for recording names of Spanish-speaking persons to facilitate…

To understand decisions made concerning language usage in "Webster's Third New International Dictionary," it is necessary to realize what standard usage is and how it changes. The definition of standard usage, given in 1932, as that language used by well-educated persons remains valid and depends more and more on professional writers for guidance.…

The "Language Inquiry," a collection of 100 statements about attitudes toward language, was devised to help teachers evaluate themselves and determine their students' ideas about language so that they could better plan what materials and strategies to utilize in a course. By indicating the degree of his agreement with each statement in…

Intended for high school English teachers, this document is devoted to the teaching of English and the effect of change on communication and language usage. Contents include the following: "The Search for What Matters," which discusses what was emphasized in the past in English instruction and examines the responsibilities of today;…

The purpose of this study was to describe the function-form relationships in a child's developing language by establishing a methodology for examining the child's early propositions and the predications which express them, identifying the points in the syntactic hierarchy at which different "meanings" are encoded, and investigating the…

At the beginning of this study a chart is given to illustrate the 13 basic verb forms of Dari (the term given to Persian spoken in Afghanistan). The verbs are then described individually in terms of their usage in sentences. The approach combines form and function to an extent not normally attempted in grammar. Two hundred forty-four verb…

The stylistics of belief is the study of the ways in which language is used by speakers to express their beliefs, to convince other people they are right, or to avoid committing themselves to particular beliefs. Such study can contribute to an understanding of the ways in which people misuse and manipulate language for their own ends. The…

This study investigated the impact of English linguistics on elementary school English textbooks published during the decade 1961-1970. The study examined seventeen sixth grade English texts in order to determine trends in the treatment of English grammar. Data were divided to show contrasts between texts published before Roberts' Series…

This book explores the theory and technique of faking it in America, referred to as the B.S. Factor. Chapter 1 discusses the Factor as a substitute for lies, causing a subtle skewing of sense, a distortion of logic, without ever becoming an actual lie. Chapter 2 breaks the B.S. Factor into styles or systems of thought and language such as…