Meaning and knowledge are separate constructs. Meaning is an idiosyncratic, cognitive construct; knowledge is a social construct built upon various shared meanings that are reconstructed and judged to be accurate or probable by a particular community. Language is the medium through which both meaning and knowledge are formed. Instructors can…

Language planning is official, government-level activity concerning the selection and promotion of a unified administrative language or languages. Language planning initiatives arise in response to sociopolitical needs and attempt to meet those needs by reducing linguistic diversity. Several stages occur in the language planning process. The first…

Raw material for writing may be found by eavesdropping on conversations and informal speeches, and transcribing graffiti and written texts from the street. These snippets of the surrounding flow of language are recorded in notebooks and categorized, later to work their way into a variety of writings of a professional writer and teacher of writing.…

The most appropriate vehicle for examining the role of language in producing sex role stereotypes and sexism is Kenneth Burke's concept of the terministic screen, a definition of reality that directs the attention of the audience along a certain line of thought. Thus, once a linguistic term is accepted as reflecting reality, the term influences…

Sociolinguistic patterns of India are discussed. (LG)

The author offers his observations on how the language learner achieves a full command of a second language in its sociocultural context. (PP)

Criticizes Bernstein's formulation that there is a fundamental qualitative difference between working class and middle class speech--that working class speech is "restricted" and middle class speech is "elaborated." It is suggested that the relationship between social class and type of speech cannot be well described or…

This article presents a historical perspective of the education of Puerto Ricans. Special emphasis is placed on the interrelationship of Puerto Rican culture and language. The article reviews the federal commitment (through Teacher Corps) and the courts' help in the cause of bilingual-bicultural education. (JA)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had little to say specifically about communication and language, but their works hint at the direction their critique of communication might have taken. Language and consciousness are conditioned by specific means of production and sociopolitical circumstances and are therefore ideological. The domain of ideology…

This work puts forward a framework that takes into account the roles of the languages known by an individual in explaining his labor earnings. First, two different strands of literature are surveyed: (1) the material on labor earnings determination viewed through capital, discrimination, and supply and demand type models; and (2) the works on what…

The functional theories of James Britton and M.A.K. Halliday are compatible in that they both (1) view language use as functional and situationally determined; (2) recognize a developmental process that involves learning the rules of use of the mature functions; (3) recognize a participatory role of language for doing and a spectatorial role for…

This centrally focused collection of articles and lectures examines literary interpretation and the relation of literature to language. The first of the book's three parts introduces the distinction between natural discourse and fictive discourse (verbal structures that function as representatives of natural utterances). It also deals with the…

The relationships between language groups in labor unions in Canada and Belgium are examined. Details of the labor movement in the two countries and characteristics of specific unions are discussed. It is concluded that, while the situation between French and Dutch speakers in Belgian unions appears stable, linguistic relations between French and…

SINCE LINGUISTS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY TURNED FROM GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS TO CONSIDER THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY, THE STUDY OF MODERNIZATION HAS BEEN LEFT LARGELY TO SOCIAL SCIENTISTS WHO CAN HARDLY BE EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH LINGUISTIC QUESTIONS. LANGUAGE PROBLEMS, HOWEVER, ARE KNOWN TO PLAGUE DEVELOPING SOCIETIES. IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA,…