Studies of African naming practices focus almost exclusively on the meanings and etymology of names and details about the circumstances surrounding how such names are assigned. Such research has not examined the implications naming has for language planning, ideologies of language, and language shift. Focusing on names and naming practices in…

This article presents the results from a preliminary investigation into the use of fingerspelling in Australian Sign Language (Auslan), drawing on data collected as part of the Sociolinguistic Variation in Australian Sign Language project (Schembri and Johnston 2004; Schembri, Johnston, and Goswell in press). This major project is a replication in…

This paper uses a corpus approach to investigate disciplinary variation in the construction of stance using nouns which are followed by "that" and a complement clause, "e.g. the argument that the Justices exhibit strategic behaviour..." Two corpora of theses written in English are examined: approximately 190,000 words in politics/international…

This study investigated how the speech act of refusal is realized in Egyptian Arabic by intermediate and advanced American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. It also compared the performance of the learners to that of native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to investigate the relationship…

"The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader" is an essential collection of readings for students of Applied Linguistics. Divided into five sections: Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Identity and Power and Language Use in Professional Contexts, the "Reader" takes a broad…

Cites examples of recent changes in language and suggests what forces are at work to produce language change. (DD)

Of the many Latin texts that provide views on language, and in particular on linguistic change and variation, Varro's "De Lingua Latina" and Gellius'"Noctes Atticae," provide good examples of the perspectives of the stoic philosopher and of the antiquarian philologist. Stoics suggest that language was created as perfect as…

Although courts are urging linguistic sensitivity, linguistic geographers and sociolinguists are providing evidence on linguistic variety. (RL)

Reports on an investigation into regionalism in Australian English, as evidenced in one type of source material, the regional newspaper. (Contains one reference.) (JL)

Explores problems involved in defining Black South African English, such as whether it is a new variety of English or a dialect and relating to whose English it is: the English of those learners who have encountered only a smattering of English in informal contexts or the variety of English acquired during formal schooling. (Author/VWL)

Argues that devoicing sites in Japanese are specified for the feature, departing from the traditional phonological analysis of Japanese vowel devoicing, which considers devoicing as an assimilation of the feature [+spread glottis]. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the most important problem translators are faced with when translating Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" into German: how can the speech of The African-American Jim be rendered? Examines both orthographic and other linguistic strategies that have been used to differentiate Jim's voice over the last hundred years. (Author/VWL)

Discusses research that demonstrates the theoretical and practical value of a dialect contact framewrk. Examines questions that can be addressed using the analytic and conceptual tools of this framework. (Author/VWL)

Reports an apparent time survey of the Fenland dialect of Eastern England that provides an example of a range of dialect contact processes reconfiguring variable patterns of past tense "be." (Author/VWL)

Discusses the role that Sociolinguistics should play with respect to the Ebonics debate in the United States. Argues that the fundamental perspective Sociolinguistics has taken with respect to this issue is sound, namely that Ebonics like any other linguistic variety is just as rule-governed and systematic. (Author/VWL)