In speaking a child sometimes makes constructions in which a sequence of separate utterances expresses a semantic relation not expressed by either utterance. These "vertical constructions" are the main point of this study. Previous studies of construction in child language have largely dealt with sentences. In this study, sentences are…

Using as a framework Ferguson's diglossia model with its division into a high and a low variety of the language used, the linguistic situation in the Sudan in described as a continuum. At one end is found the very formal classical Arabic, used for special occasions. At the other end is a casual form which dominates meetings and social gatherings…

In most European languages, choice of address form classifies the relation between speakers. The first theoretical framework for analyzing address form usage was established by Brown and Gilman (1960) in their investigation of the semantics of pronoun use in a wide variety of Indo-European languages, which concluded that Europeans use the informal…

This volume presents principles and models for describing language variation, and introduces a time-based, dynamic framework for linguistic description. The book first summarizes some of the problems of grammatical description encountered from Saussure through the present and then outlines possibilities for new descriptions of language which take…

This reader is intended to accompany the Basic Course in Spoken Hindi. Following an outline of the Devanagari script, 20 lessons are presented. Each consists of a reading selection, several illustrative sentences in English and Hindi, and a series of questions. Most of the reading selections were adapted from the magazine "Bal-Bharati."…

This book attempts to introduce the reader to techniques of communication control, in listening and speaking as well as reading and writing. To this end, the use of a simplified vocabulary called Every Man's English is advocated. Section 2 presents some principles of Every Man's English. The contribution of Ogden's Basic English, a core vocabulary…

No attempt is made here to construct a theory about language and sexism, but examples of English usage are provided as data which would have to be accounted for by any general statements regarding the nature and function of sexist language in our society. The examples are taken from the English lexicon and syntactic structure, with emphasis on…

The paper begins with a discussion of several recently proposed analyses of nominal compounds in English. It is then suggested that the relations which may appropriately underlie nominal compounds of the type Noun + Noun can best be defined negatively, i.e. by listing those relations between two nouns which cannot underlie compounds rather than…

In an attempt to improve students' written expression, this study tested two assumptions: (1) that if students were led through a series of oral language experiences to a realization of the relationships between oral and written sentence structures which they were encouraged to practice, they would write a variety of sentence structures; and (2)…

The present study aimed: (1) to systematically describe and classify the speech input received by children of specified ages from their mothers in the home, (2) to investigate the interdependence between the quality of the mother's speech, her socio-cultural background, and her children's level of intelligence, and (3) to determine whether some…

One of the central questions in the study of bilingualism is the degree to which it is possible for a group to maintain their language even when accepting other cultural values. There are numbers of cases of peoples who have managed to develop a modern industrial society without giving up their national language; this is difficult, but possible. A…

A conceptual category approach to the study of the comprehension of natural language is presented as an alternative to previous approaches made solely in terms of information gain or specific linguistic variables. Elementary school children between the ages of 6 and 11 years were given a referent identification task to test their comprehension of…

Charles A. Ferguson's concept of "diglossia" (1959, 1964) is used in analyzing sign language. As in Haitian Creole or Swiss German, "two or more varieties" of sign language are "used by the same speakers under different conditions"--these are here called "High" (H) sign language and "Low" (L) sign language. H sign language is formally taught…

To determine the variety of syntactic patterns that potential English teachers would normally use and the possible differences in their oral and written discourse, 1000-word oral and written language samples were collected from 21 student teachers. These samples were divided into T-units and classified according to 23 sentence patterns based on…

Because the use of "good" grammar is directly related to status in American society, changes in grammatical usage are made slowly and cautiously. Current American linguistic attitudes are derived from two aspects of the early New England school tradition: the development of lexicography initiated in this country by Noah Webster, and the…