Analysis of a recent scientific event, and some of its linguistic and conceptual frames from both a lay and specialist perspective, shows that English for Science and Technology analyses could benefit from adopting a scientific method of investigation, some background knowledge of science, and reconsideration of ideas found in linguistics on the…

Draws a distinction between two kinds of summarization involved in discourse comprehension: abbreviated versions and brief accounts. English summaries written by Austrian university students are used to illustrate the different degrees of contextualization, or schematic priming, that influenced the amount of processing the students performed on…

Describes the seven main components of QUEST, a cognitive model of question answering that attempts to simulate the answers adults produce when they answer different types of questions, both closed class and open class. Illustrates how the model could be applied to different types of knowledge structures, including causal networks, goal…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in two experiments. Examines which components of QUEST could predict good answers to why-questions and how-questions in the context of short stories. Supports the validity of arc-search procedures and structural distance for both question categories. Finds only partial support for number of information…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in naturalistic settings and in settings with complex pragmatic constraints: telephone surveys, business interactions, filmed interviews, and interviews on popular television programs. Finds that QUEST explains most of the answers in these contexts and virtually all of the answers that refer to the…

Analyzes why conceptual ambiguity surrounds the subject of writing plans: why they are viewed alternatively favorably and unfavorably; why they are sometimes mental and sometimes written constructs; and why they are sometimes indistinguishable from writing goals. Concludes that one problem is the view of writing as product. (SG)

Uses a pragma-dialectical analysis to argue that the legal process is rational. Suggests that the legal system's own rules guarantee that the conditions of rational and efficient discussion are present. Describes the Netherlands' civil procedure rules and shows how such rules help ensure that legal discussions are rational. (SG)

Reports on a study in which subjects heard the beginnings of spoken words, followed by increasingly larger segments of word-onset information until the words could be correctly identified. Results are discussed in terms of word-initial phonology as a trigger for response activation. (34 references) (Author/OD)

Examines Susan Sontag's February 1982 Town Hall Address as a case study of strategies and constraints associated with contextual reconstruction (whereby rhetors address perceived conflicts between text and context). Traces the development of these concepts in Sontag's writings. Discusses the counter-intentional understanding of Sontag's speech by…

Analyzes processes by which gay people see themselves in relation to the social construction of AIDS discourse, both as individuals and as a collective. Uses Foucault's concepts of "subjectification" and "bio-power" to describe self-defining constructs of people with AIDS and to explicate their interactions with the political…

Uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia (the dialectal voices present in language) to describe the narrative discourse in Flannery O'Connor's novel "Wise Blood," and to explore the rhetorical effects of the novel and the values embodied in its language. (SR)

Describes the clanger phenomenon (disruption or redirection of conversation caused by an interactionally aggressive utterance), and reexamines and more closely defines it in terms of foreign language learners' needs and language use. (CB)

Discusses the fundamental problems within speech act theory, focusing on the extent that these problems undermine attempts to apply speech act theory in the field of language pedagogy. (96 references) (Author/OD)

Examines narrative telling by children, and the transition in development from the capability of talking in the "here and now" to the capability of telling about the "there and then." Seemingly, very young children can produce narratives in an unscaffolded context to adults unfamiliar with these experiences. (23 references) (GLR)

Used story grammar to analyze pretend play productions of 46 children of 4-8 years. Results showed structural parallels between pretend play and stories for 76 percent of subjects. Older subjects' play was episodic and younger subjects' was preepisodic. (RJC)