Study of the use of baby talk in parental speech can illuminate the parent-child relationship, acquisition of adult language, the permissible modifications to language structure without diminishing meaning, and code-switching. This is illustrated in the baby talk embedded in adult-child conversation in the context of family and household in three…

Aboriginal discourse in central Australia is characterized by a refusal to impose a way of thinking on others, and correct discourse either carries a consensus or is abandoned. In addition, participants avoid being exposed personally in public settings, and good interactional style forbids speakers from forcing themselves on fellow participants in…

A pilot study investigated the varieties of English used in two commercial contexts and the success of speakers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in transmitting intended information to listeners from other native language backgrounds. A questionnaire was administered to both native speakers of English (NS) and non-native speakers…

This dissertation presents a study of patterns of speech in Western Subanon, as heard in areas of Mindanao, an island in the Philippines. An introductory section discusses relevant general issues in linguistic research and the present study. The relationships of language to linguistics and of language to society, the objectives of the study, the…

Linguistics can make major contributions to the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum, as exemplified in the relationship between linguistics and the English curriculum. The major points of contact between English and linguistics are the areas of stylistics and poetics. In the study of English, linguistics can enrich descriptions of texture…

The languages used in Madagascar are examined from the following perspectives: the linguistic varieties and functions socially recognized at the community level; the oppositions and complementarities that have become established between languages in contact; and the speakers' attitudes toward those varieties. The report focuses on the following…

Working on the assumption that an adequate model of comprehension must also deal with its connotative aspect (the aspect that concerns the feeling, mood, or "tone" of the text), this paper examines the concept of contextual tone. After defining tone according to its various senses and synonymous forms (voice, attitude, style, mood, and…

Like legal language, medical language is a private language, a separate stratum containing some words specially defined for medical purposes, some existing only in the medical vocabulary, and some adding precision or solemnity. These characteristics often cause a breakdown in patient-doctor communication. Analysis of data obtained from prototype…

Assembled in the course of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project, which examined the nature of collective and individual response to fairytale literature, this bibliography cites materials pertinent to response assessment. Listed by author, the subjects of the approximately 150 titles include language and meaning, poetics, literary…

Current practices and materials for teaching English as a second language (ESL) contain oversimplifications about English based on the assumption of a uniform language type and standard of usage, presented to foreign learners for pedagogical clarity. ESL teachers may be aware of the language's diversity but are not prepared to provide…

As part of long term research on the effects of a small, yet intensive, early-age intervention, this study examined the family communication style of 54 mother-child dyads and the scholastic perfomance of the target children. The 19 experimental dyads were of low socioeconomic status and had participated in Project Know How. In this project,…

A total of 224 college students participated in a study of the relationships between dogmatism and authoritarianism and the characteristics of written discourse. Early in the semester each class completed a public opinion poll which included a combination of the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the California F Scale. In a seemingly unrelated task…

This paper analyzes the prophetic speech of Ga spirit mediums in terms of its linguistic style and its socio-religious function. As used in the study, "prophetic speech" is understood to have two major characteristics: (1) glossolalic style, and (2) prophetic message content, and it is used by people believed to be possessed by spirits. Prophetic…

Discusses the nature and history of black English, arguing that the duality of the black experience both within and without the American national experience, and the contribution of different classes and strata of the black community to that duality, appeared in the kind of English spoken on the farms and plantations and in the towns and cities.…

Discusses the teaching of oral and written expression, including the role of rhetoric and linguistics. (Text is in French.) (AM)