Certain word-order patterns are more basic and less marked than others. The more strongly marked a pattern seems to be in isolation, the stronger must be the contextual forces motivating its use, if it is to seem natural in a text. Various topicalizations (of adverbials, objects, and parts of verb phrases, for example) need various degrees of…

This workbook in French grammar, intended for American college students, provides instruction and practice in French morphology, syntax, vocabulary, punctuation, and language style at the intermediate level. It is also designed to increase or reinforce the students' understanding of English grammar, based on the assumption that American students…

Formulaic speech, expressions learned as unanalyzed wholes and used on particular occasions by native speakers, is contrasted to "grammatical" sentences using novel combinations of words in the second language classroom. The speech produced by three limited English-speaking children in an English program suggests that formulaic speech…

Two experiments were undertaken in Hong Kong to examine sociocultural factors in the speech acts of making apologies in Cantonese. The first experiment involved ten men who were given role cards describing various situations with minor to serious problems for which they must apologize. The influence of certain situational variables on the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 31 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the rhetoric of confrontation in Northern Ireland; (2) rhetorical arguments in public health regulations; (3) epideictic discourse in the founding of the…

Differences in spoken and written English appear at every level of the language; there are differences in phonology, morphology, vocabulary, and syntax, as well as differences in acceptability levels. This study contains four sections and an inventory of contrasting forms. Section One deals with domains and modalities including those discourse…

Second language learners are engaged in a self-directed learning program which is supported by regular interviews with their counsellor. Interviews with 15 persons were recorded during a 1-year period in order to get data for an analysis of the ways native and second language learning are similar to each other and so mutually helpful. The data…

A national random sample of over 14,000 high school seniors was studied with respect to socio-cultural differences in responses to cognitive test items. Six different cognitive tests and ten different groups were analyzed. The tests were: vocabulary, picture-number, reading, letter-groups, mathematics, and mosaic comparisons. The groups were:…

Research indicates that most blacks shift between a variety of social registers to produce inherent variability in the features of their speech, which in turn causes problems for college composition instruction. Writing teachers must avoid holding a stereotypic view of black speech, be sensitive to the varying social registers of black speech, and…

Designed with junior high school students in mind, the activities in this booklet are offered as ways to stimulate interest in writing using as little as ten minutes of class time. The activities are arranged in six sections: (1) developing observation skills and paying attention to details; (2) word play, descriptive words, and word collections…

The source of syntactic ambiguity and facts concerning the resolution of such ambiguity are discussed in this paper. The attitude of qenerative linguists towards ambiguity is examined, and a working distinction is drawn between vaqueness and ambiguity. The consequences of this distinction are then examined for syntactic ambiguity and an ordering…

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

Sixty half-hour family discussions generated by the "revealed differences technique" were analyzed to determine the emotional intensity and quality (friendliness/attacking) of messages between individuals in families with schizophrenic and "normal" sons. Thirty families in each situation (schizophrenic/normal) were matched for comparison. Both…

THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD "LANGUAGE" CAN BE LIMITED TO MEAN "A VOCAL AND AUDITORY MEANS OF COMMUNICATION, WHICH WORKS BY THE SYMBOLIC PROCESS, WHICH HAS A COMPLEX STRUCTURE, AND WHICH IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING SO LONG AS IT REMAINS IN USE." THERE ARE SIX IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DEFINITION--(1) ALTHOUGH LANGUAGE IS PRIMARILY AUDITORY AND VOCAL, IT CAN…

A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, "ON TEACHING LITERATURE" (TE 000 393), THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS DESIGNED PRIMARILY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. IN NINE SECTIONS, EACH BY A DIFFERENT AUTHOR, IT DESCRIBES AND SUMMARIZES THE CONTENTS OF WHAT THE WRITERS HAVE JUDGED TO BE THE MOST VALUABLE AND…