Isolates a dozen problems with diction and sentence structure that comprise the "gobbledygook syndrome." (RL)

Examines methods of teaching the stylistics of language usage, emphasizing revision in the composing process. (RL)

"Gastarbeiterdeutsch" includes varieties of German spoken by the many foreign workers employed in low-paid, less desirable jobs in Germany. It is characterized by reduction and simplification of syntactic and semantic forms. Study of this dialect reveals patterns of natural language acquisition necessary for communication, useful in classroom…

Addresses the advantages and limitations of a corpus-based approach to researching and teaching idioms in a specific genre by drawing on a specialized corpus of 1.7 million words of academic discourse, the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. Argues that evidence from such a corpus can be informative for language teachers when the primary…

Advocates the use of stylistics for teaching English-as-a-Foreign-Language at the tertiary level. Describes stylistics, discusses discourse conventions and grammatical structure, and examines stylistic analysis of a Shakespearian sonnet and a poem. (Author/VWL)

Investigates how numbers function rhetorically by influencing persuasive appeals, the structure of messages, and the use of language. Argues that "three" is the dominant numerical motif in the English language. Asserts that, as long as numbers influence the speech, behaviors, and perceptions of people, their rhetorical significance must…

Identifies and explains the nature of syntactic and pragmatic codes on prime-time television which distinguish characters on the basis of gender and social class. Finds that middle-class television characters employed a syntactic code by using linguistic elaboration and structural complexity. (SR)

Offers a historical view of the Latvian language to show ways in which different political realities have affected Latvian vocabulary; for instance, in terms of loan words, and ways in which Latvian perceptions of loans shed light on cross-cultural aspects of translation. Discusses strategies by which Latvian translators have tried to solve these…

Provides an initial review of social scientific research on the causes and effects of alcohol use and abuse. A framework is provided for exploring some of fundamental and everyday sociolinguistic and communicative dimensions of drinking, with attention to their implications for drinking and driving practice and anti-drunk-driving campaigns. (118…

This article summarizes procedures used in translating technical jargon in the field of behavior therapy to plain English. It lists phrases translated from applied behavior analysis to public education, presents acronyms useful in remembering sequences of steps, and describes two tests to help in decision making in behavior analysis applications.…

The authors respond to comments on their article, "Back Channels Revisited." The current state of the art in acknowledgement token research is outlined with particular reference to the turn-initial token "yeah." Contrastive uses of acknowledgement tokens are described. (20 references) (LB)

The media interview is seen as a form of information exchange that is increasingly important and needs to be understood. Similarities and differences in written and oral interview reports are briefly examined, and interview objectives, forms (dialogue or narrative), and language functions are discussed. (MSE)

Shows that Brett's model is an inadequate basic model of the rhetorical categories of the results sections of medical research articles for interdisciplinary genre analysis. With further refinements to the modifications presented in this report, the model could successfully be applied to the English-for-Specific-Purposes classroom for analysis of…

Discusses explanations regarding bilingual children's codemixing, including that it is influenced by the particular discourse strategies parents use in conversation with their children. Five French-English bilingual families in Montreal were examined for parental style of response, children's rates of codemixing, and effects of responses on…

Tests claims regarding "get"-passives in English via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. The data suggest that "get"-passives are often associated with two types of pragmatic implicature. Finally, the corpus provides evidence of three types of variation with 'get'-passives: regional, stylistic, and diachronic.…