The linguist does not usually describe grammatical structures of stylized sentences because there are none well-formed on the surface. He could use rules for organizational and relational features of the grammar which affect the last lines of generation to produce deviant but acceptable linguistic forms, thereby increasing the predictive power of…

The teacher of black students needs to develop a sensitivity to their rich communicative language styles in order to use the varied styles in the classroom situation. (JH)

Baby talk, also known as motherese or child-directed speech, refers to a set of speech modifications commonly found in the language adults use to address young children. The same functional motivations underlying adult speech to other adults also shape adult speech to children. These include pedagogy, control, affection, social exchange, and…

Legal language is discussed in the context of concern about the comprehensibility of consumer documents and the trend toward simplification of the language used in these documents. Specific features of legal language and its functions within the legal community and society are identified. As a primary tool of the legal profession, legal language…

A study examined lexical density in interviews and conversation with the same subjects. Sixteen undergraduate and graduate students, members of religious, political, and/or cultural societies at Aston University (England), were interviewed in pairs by the university chaplain, who knew them. Immediately following each interview, the chaplain left…

TREX, which stands for "translating into the mother tongue as an exercise in written language," is a classroom technique for exploring the native language by translating from a second or source language. The central feature is the individual student activity of translating, with subsequent group examination and comparison of lexical,…

The relationship of one aspect of conversational style, the degree of directness in the sending and interpretation of messages, to ethnicity was investigated in a comparison of the communication styles of Greeks and Americans. It was hypothesized that Greeks tend to be more indirect in speech than Americans, and that English speakers of Greek…

A system of classification for tellings and retellings by Panama's Kuna Indians reveals the dimensions of their structure and function, textually, contextually, strategically, and ethnographically. Kuna verbal life can be characterized in terms of three distinct ritual-ceremonial traditions marked by three distinct languages, settings, sets of…

While there has been much interest in the differences between oral and written language styles, studies have focused on the relative use of certain features. Little attention has been paid to the cultural value given to language style in languages with a literary tradition versus value given to style in those with a non-literary traditions. All…

A study investigated the possibility that native speakers of American English make coordinated modifications in their speech to non-native addressees, depending on the degree to which the conversation is conventionalized. The specific exchange analyzed was direction-giving, and evidence of use of a "foreigner" register was sought in…

A framework for using the material contained in French high school business correspondence manuals to teach business correspondence in French as a second language is presented. The intent is to introduce the function of various letter formats and to facilitate deciphering the content of the letters. Exercises promote situational analysis of…

Television advertising should be used for second language instruction for several reasons: availability; common features across cultures (i.e., familiarity); intrinsic, intentional didactic quality; convenient length; entertainment value and likelihood of student response; and the range of proficiency levels to which it can be adapted. A variety…

A discussion of the nature and function of interlanguage in second language acquisition draws on research on interlanguage and experiences in teaching German to Finnish secondary students. The theories giving rise to the concept of interlanguage are outlined and compared, and the characteristics of interlanguage are discussed. Special attention is…

Language classroom activities fall into three categories: (1) citation, or samples, intended to exemplify the language system; (2) simulation; and (3) replication, activities with a definite nonlinguistic outcome, with communicative success or failure measured by the outcome, not by the language output itself. Instruction that relies primarily on…

A study was undertaken to evaluate the child's capacity to judge the acceptability of French interrogative utterances on three levels--familiar, standard, and educated. A second objective was to consider the resulting observations in the light of certain sociocultural parameters. The test, one that had been used for adults in French second…