Identifies the major issues that need to be confronted in resolving the controversy over the historical roots of African American Vernacular English. and discusses their implications for reconstruction. (Author/VWL)

Asks what first-order language might be like if there were no way to talk, write, or sign about it--that is, what if there were no second-order metalanguage. By considering the consequences for writing, translation, pragmatics, semantics, and language acquisition and evolution, it is suggested that without second-order, reflexive properties,…

Analyzes the word order characteristics of "hentai Kambun, the archaic Japanese writing styles employed for recording Japanese in a way that outwardly resembles Chinese. Proposes that hentai kambun word order can receive a systematic account by assuming that Japanese has underlying head-initial word-order, and that it is a representation of this…

Discusses the impact of the development of a dictionary of Jersey Norman French. The dictionary has created a perception among speakers of Jersey French that they did not know the language. This perception appears to be the result of the ecological change that the dictionary produced by repositioning the language from an oral habitat to a written…

Draws on sociohistoric theory to argue that voice in writing is simultaneously personal and social, because discourse is understood as fundamentally historical, situated, and indexical. Explores voice as a typification linked to social identities, as the reinvoicing of others' words in texts through processes of repetition and presupposition, and…

Provides reflections on articles contained in this special issue of the journal. Substantial comments are included for each of the four articles contained in the issue. (Author/VWL)

Investigates whether the spoken nature of electronic mail messages has already started to affect business written communication. Examines register and context of the language as well as the style used in commercial electronic mail. (Author/VWL)

Language relating to any concept will tend, over time, to acquire some of the concept?s emotional impact. Thus, words that were, at one stage, neutral become laden with meaning. This document discusses the importance of being aware of the effects that language usage has on communication. It is important to ensure that written and verbal…

This study examined the hypotheses that (a) the relationship between listening and reading comprehension becomes stronger after decoding mastery; (b) the difference between listening and reading decreases with increasing grade level; and (c) similar patterns of relationship and difference are obtained with narrative and expository texts. The…

The authors examine the implications of research on Chinese for theories of reading and propose the lexical constituency model as a general framework for word reading across writing systems. Word identities are defined by 3 interlinked constituents (orthographic, phonological, and semantic). The implemented model simulates the time course of…

Traditional psycholinguistic approaches to metalinguistic awareness in L1 learners elicit responses containing metalanguage that demonstrates metalinguistic awareness of predetermined aspects of language knowledge. This paper, which takes a more ethnographic approach, demonstrates how pupils are able to engage their own focus of metalanguage when…

In empirical studies of human eye movement behavior during reading, it is common to compute various summary measures from the data, but these measures are typically not evaluated with respect to corresponding measures of baseline performance. The authors present a method for deriving an appropriate baseline by mapping the actual behavior to a…

This study examines the factors influencing language and script choice in instant messaging (IM), a form of real-time computer-mediated communication, in a multilingual setting. Grounded in the New Literacy Studies, the study understands IM as a social practice involving texts, encompassing a range of literacy practices, within which a subset…

In this article, I examine how transnational students' educational trajectories are shaped by social relations and identity formation as developed in part through the medium of school-based bilingual literacy practices. By examining the educational trajectory of one young woman at an unusual, bilingual high school, I demonstrate that, in critical…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…