Address before the Joint Conventions of the Modern Language Association and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, New York, New York, December 28, 1968.

Readings are presented on the topic of linguistic pluralism in the United States. A section on some speech communities in the United States introduces major American language varieties, and representative studies show the central role of language in the maintenance of community identity. The section on variation within speech communities focuses…

The major articles in this publication devoted to applied linguistics and second language instruction include the following: (1) "The Centrality of Language: An Editorial," by James W. Marchand; (2) "Report on the Chicago Hearing of the President's Commission," by Paul A. Gaeng; (3) "Sense and Common Sense in the Study of…

THIS ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE AS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF HUMAN LIVING TREATS THE PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN MAKING ACCURATE STATEMENTS ABOUT PEOPLE AND THE WORLD. LANGUAGE HABITS WHICH MISREPRESENT FACTS OF LIFE ARE DISCUSSED, AS WELL AS LANGUAGE HABITS WHICH PRODUCE "CORRECT-TO-FACT" EVALUATIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS. SUBJECTS OF CHAPTERS ARE (1) THE…

This paper is intended to provide "an informative general survey" for those persons interested in Chinese, a language used by 25 percent of the world's population. One of the earliest languages in recorded form, written Chinese has both classical and modern forms. Language reforms in Peking, designed to standardize and simplify spoken…

The Japanese system of honorification shows respect either to the subject or to the direct or indirect object of the sentence. The selection of the polite or plain styles of speech determines the level of honorifics. The increase in mass communication and public speaking has led to a search for a reasonably polite but not old-fashioned or pompous…

This study explored the relationship of metaphor content and the perceived credibility of the person using the metaphor. The subjects were 190 persons attending Western Illinois University who were exposed to two credibility inductions, each including a figurative statement, and then were asked to rate the credibility of each source. The…

As a part of the Final Report of the National Study of American Indian Education, this document reported on the perceptions and attitudes of Indian students, parents, teachers, and community leaders toward Indian culture and its incorporation in the school curriculum in their respective communities. Attitudes were ascertained using various scales.…

In this discussion of various aspects of sexism in language the following principles or basic ideas are set forth for the reader's consideration: (1) the irrational and undesirable idea that male terms stand for the whole population is harmful and the practice should be eliminated; (2) language which suggests that women are, by virtue of their…

This paper outlines the development of an exciting set of changes going on in the field of linguistics at the present time. From studies of the ethnography of communication, generative semantics, variation theory, and pidgins and creoles has come a convergence of interests which highlights the concept of gradatum (rather than continuum) in…

Feminist resentment of journalistic language use can be found in published letters to the editor, in feminist periodicals, and in public address. This paper examines commentary on language, noting the charge that journalistic language frequently is discriminatory and offensive to women in defining them, in designating their identity, and in…

Language planning involves decisions of two basic types: those pertaining to language choice and those pertaining to language development. Linguistic theory is needed to evaluate the structural suitability of candidate languages, since both official and national languages must have a high level of standardization as a cultural necessity. On the…

The linguistic relativity hypothesis is the view that the language a person speaks influences his perception of the world. This hypothesis is frequently misunderstood to be a question of the influence of language on culture, when in reality it emphasizes the influence of language on the cognition of its speakers. This distinction between culture…