Discusses the interpretation and application of contract language. Gives attention to the arbitrator's handling of ambiguity, intent, past practice, and prior record. (Author/IRT)

Provides definitions and sample citations for eight new English words and expressions. Journal availability: see FL 512 512. (AM)

Provides an overview of early work on the translation of sacred texts into various languages. Reviews the language use patterns and practices historically characteristic of different religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Quakerism. Describes linguistic effects of missionary activity in several…

States that Christian Morgenstern made a fundamental point of semantics clear by making any absolute faith in words ridiculous. Describes other pieces of Morgenstern's poetry, and examines its implications in semantic terms. Points out that Morgenstern ridiculed the assumption that what is said must be sensible, as if the world must obey human…

Considers how changes in language usage come about and whether such changes can be identified and examined as they occur in a language, focusing on changes in the English language in past centuries and the present day. (MDM)

Examines why cliches persist, discussing the evolution of rhetoric, rhetoric in the primary orality stage, rhetoric in the writing and in the printing stage, and rhetoric in the secondary orality stage. Concludes that cliches perform a useful rhetorical task. (SR)

Proposes an approach to translation theory that includes performative factors and that views the translation process as a context-bound and communicative performance. (SR)

Spontaneous speech samples collected from six autistic and Down's Syndrome children were analyzed for language referring to various psychological states. Autistic children were comparable to Down's Syndrome controls in their talk about desire, perception, and emotion. However, they used less language to call for attention and to refer to cognitive…

Describes investigation of effects of counselor's language choice and skill on perceptions of counselor credibility by participants with and without disabilities. Language and participant disability status had no effect on ratings of counselor credibility. Counselor skill had strong effect on all dependent variables. Discusses implications for…

Explores how inferential or evocative language functions to determine meaning and focus in screenplays. Demonstrates that, although "shooting scripts" might be read as instructions, "screenplays" can be understood only as a form of writing that communicates its meaning through the connotative nuances of language. Shows how…

States that derivations of a word are often as intriguing as the explanations psychologists offer for human behavior. Explores the idea that etymology and psychology offer more than just interesting parallels--the meaning and metaphor of each is twisted into and around each other. (PA)

States that the application of cybertextual technologies to experimental poetics is the context for this brief exposition of machine modulated literary work. Raises issues crucial to the work described here--the role of (literary) text in cyberspace; silent reading in new visible language media; and the confusions of computer as medium. (PA)

In this article, the author laments the way students abuse the term "like" in their common language. She feels that the word has become a pervasive parasite in the speech of many unwitting American teenagers, and discusses the many purposes "like" serves in conversation. "Like" can be a verb that stands for "said." It is a shortcut that allows the…

Parent report instruments adapted from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) examined vocabulary development in children aged 0 ; 8 to 2 ; 6 for two Chinese languages, Mandarin (n = 1694) and Cantonese (n = 1625). Parental reports suggested higher overall scores for Mandarin- than for Cantonese-speaking children from…

A critical/creative paradigm in contemporary English carries with it an imperative that students should be given opportunities for deep engagement with texts relevant to what matters in their everyday lives. In this paper, I argue that the materiality of everyday life includes the physical and geographic places where we live. When students live in…