Proposes to establish the correct Black cultural perspective on the role and function of personal insults in sounding and the boundary between play and nonplay. Considers different cultural consequences that would stem from regarding personal insults to be part of verbal play or not, and shows similarity in the structure and function of…

Explores the possibility that the characterization of native speaker-nonnative speaker speech (NS-NNS) is too broadly conceived. Confirms earlier claims about NS-NNS interaction, but also offers evidence that the frequency of use of discourse modifications by NSs in conversation with NNSs is variable. (EKN)

States that both the register and variety of an interpreter's speech are quite limited and analyzes the linguistic characteristics of "International English," the English used by interpreters at international conferences. (CFM)

Analyzes the special vocabulary of teenagers, with an examination of the various themes running through teen "rat" talk. Suggests that the roots of adolescent alienation are not so deep as the existence of this vocabulary and other elements of their behavior suggest. (RL)

Laments the trend toward the simplistic and plain styles of writing. Offers English teachers reasons for endorsing elegance as an alternative to stark plainness. (RL)

Suggests a technique for helping journalism students learn writing style and become familiar with a stylebook without taking large amounts of class time. (TJ)

Describes how a class of technical writing students learned to create their own style guides relevant to their areas of specialty. Includes a composite style guide. (TJ)

The address systems in Raymond Barrio's "The Plum Plum Pickers" imply sociolinguistic differences between the Chicano and the Anglo characters. The kinds of sociolinguistic situations, the number of dyadic patterns, and the quantity of the dyadic patterns strongly suggest the differences. (Author)

Reviews samples of professional annotated bibliographies (ABs), and on the basis of these, establishes a list of potential features of its genre. Uses this list to evaluate student annotated bibliographies. Results show that students, as emerging members of their professional communities, have an understanding of the conventional structure of ABs…

Dedicates this issue of "Language Sciences" to Roy Harris, former Professor of Linguistics at Oxford University, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The article points out that because of Harris's writing style and arguments, he is viewed as a skeptic, who approaches any topic from the perspective of philosophy rather than that of…

Examines words per pause (W/P) as a means of identifying solidarity between speakers and listeners. Speakers use significantly more words per pause with friends than when speaking with strangers. W/P can be used to investigate speaking style in various contexts and to diagnose sympathy and estrangement between speakers. (JL)

Introduces counselors to 10 commonly used mannerisms of speech and the part that each mannerism plays in the communication process, especially in the counseling context. Offers suggestions on how to respond to these speech mannerisms in a straightforward and effective manner. (Author)

Review of transcripts of supposedly invariant opinion surveys reveals, rather than suppressing their individual linguistic styles, interviewers make changes in scripted introduction and add unscripted answer-acknowledgments and commentary throughout interviews. Although this is a response to U.S. value of individuality in discourse, it conflicts…

Compares E-Prime, a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be," with E-Choice, a form of English eliminating pernicious occurrences of conjugated forms of the verb. Criticizes the use of E-Prime for its difficulty making certain statements and its premise that a mechanical device be substituted for the process of…

Provides the comments of D. David Bourland, Jr., inventor of E-Prime (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be"), with regard to the articles included in this special issue. Outlines the meaning and uses of E-Prime. Critiques and discusses several of the issue's different articles. (HB)