This paper brings together ideas from feminist epistemology and critical theory to initiate a conversation on repressed or distorted communication. It argues that current feminist epistemological studies of women's ways of knowing, making sense, and solving problems can and should inform attempts to empower democratic dialogues and restructure the…

In competitive debate, a view of meaning as something that a team has a right to pre-select is inconsistent with Ludwig Wittgenstein's conception of meaning as use. The "language-linked value objection" rejects conventional value objection of identifying the negative consequences of taking a stance in the hypothetical world of the…

Serving as a way to sum up or apply many of the principles students have been studying in a general semantics course, a unit on advertising language is devoted to examining how advertisers select language for its affective and directive uses. The unit shows how language is used to stimulate consumer interest in a product and often to mask the lack…

The validity of the consensus paradigm dominant in sociolinguistics is questioned. Social scientists working in this paradigm take the perspective of society as an aggregate operating through agreement between its constituent elements, working to the benefit of the aggregate. The best-known of the consensus-oriented theories is…

This pamphlet reports on a project in Tasmania exploring whether the "natural learning conditions" approach to language learning could be adapted for mathematics. The connections between language and mathematics, as well as the natural learning processes of language learning are described in the pamphlet. The project itself is…

This paper discusses narrative as a culturally significant speech genre which can be analyzed to reveal important aspects of a culture's code, particularly its expectations for conduct. The paper argues that through an analysis of narratives an understanding of one important aspect of a culture's code, specifically, that aspect which deals with a…

When introducing doublespeak in the classroom, there is a great temptation to pose as the good guy exposing the lying words of all the powerful bad guys. To a degree teachers should do this. But they cannot stop there, for it implies a posture of moral superiority. A solution to this problem is to focus on questions of choice and to be aware of…

Designed for all persons who conduct classes and for staff, administrators, and students, this booklet lays out guidelines for nonsexist communication. The booklet, intended both to raise consciousness about how sexist communication looks and sounds and to suggest nonsexist alternatives, is composed of four main sections. The first section…

A study developed an analytical tool for the critiquing of FCC legal arguments in the dimensions of purpose and quality. The supposition of the study was that law is an inherently rhetorical activity. The model elaborated was a situational matrix created out of the classical typologies of rhetorical occasions and oratory: the forensic,…

In reply to criticism from Wolfgang Butzkamm the author defends the desirability and necessity of foreign language instruction, French in particular, in the German educational system. Suggestions for improving the present modern language curriculum are made. (Text is in German.) (TL)

This paper, a small part of a larger project which explores the effects of linguistic insecurity on language production, discusses the negative attitudes toward language of some of the present-day "language elite"--those who take pleasure in or earn their livelihood by "Correcting every body else." Linguistic insecurity is, then, the feeling that…

A study was conducted to compare the degree of Jewish identity felt by: Soviet immigrants and American Jews. Questionnaire respondents in each group indicated their knowledge of Yiddish and of religious customs. Spoken knowledge of Yiddish was far more common among the Soviet Jews surveyed than among the Americans. Any knowledge of Yiddish by…

The purpose of the study was to observe the extent to which preschool children's actions were guided by private speech utterances in free play and puzzle solving conditions. A second purpose was to examine how the structure of private speech utterances varied according to the context in which they were uttered. Fifteen preschoolers were videotaped…

The interview questionnaire presented here was designed to elicit three kinds of response--(1) descriptions of Ethiopian language situations, (2) statements from which inferences can be drawn about the respondent's language-related attitudes and values, and (3) information about the respondent's personal history. See related document AL 001 283.…