Tests Ervin-Tripps's hypotheses concerning the relationship between several social and ecological factors and the choice of directive variants in English, using as a sample a predominantly Black male migratory agricultural labor population. Found that most of the predictions derived from Ervin-Tripp's model for these directive variants were…

An interview with David Olson concerning his current research on the relation between the oral conversational language of preschool children and the formalized language of written texts. (RAE)

Supports outlining as an invaluable tool for teaching students how to prepare to write on subjects of a logical nature and for analysis of writing of like kind. (RAE)

Discusses a study of discourse patterns in the learning of second language oral skills. The study, based on research traditions such as ethnography of communication and conversation analysis, adopts as its main theoretical framework Vygotsky's theory of social origin of language and cognition. (DJD)

Comparison of third- and sixth-grade students' ability to detect and correct three types of textual inconsistencies (reader-based, text-based, and text structure) embedded in three types of expository discourse revealed that such monitoring was strategic and associated with reading ability and developmental status. (Author/CB)

Analysis of a one-year-old's speech in two different speech contexts (dialogue vs. crib-monologue) yielded striking patterns of co-occurrences involving verb morphology and forms of self-reference. (Author/CB)

Analyzes the status of the audience as a theoretical construct. Argues against the usefulness of a unified conception of audience effects. Develops an epistemological framework for reconstructive theorizations of the concrete structures and practices studied as audience issues. (MS)

Article provides a brief overview of sociolinguistics for educational researchers, describes the relevance of sociolinguistics for understanding classroom discourse, and suggests ways to measure the adequacy of sociolinguistic studies. (RB)

Describes a mental game in which (1) the identification of some vividly recalled literary excerpt is postponed and, instead, the source is described as much as possible and (2) the source is identified and checked to see if the description accurately represents it. Uses this game to discuss the relation between speech and literary discourse. (JD)

Discusses Mikhail Bakhtin's vision of the continuous affluence of language and claims it celebrates the polymeric nature of discourse as opposed to the traditional triangular paradigm which proves hopelessly inadequate.

Indicates that, of the 11 types of regrettable messages that people reported, most (1) were said to those with whom they had a close relationship, (2) resulted from unchecked drives or feelings, and (3) were recognized and regretted immediately. (JD)

The first study indicates that (1) both messages and message sources differed significantly as a function of the sophistication of the strategies employed by the message source and (2) female sources were more positively evaluated than male sources. The second study reveals that evaluations of comforting messages varied as a direct, linear…

Discusses glosses, that is, formulations which, on their occurrence, are adequate but which turn out to have been incomplete, ambiguous and perhaps misleading. Examines the ways in which a coparticipant's activities may result in a speaker either maintaining or revealing the gloss. (SED)

Presents a model of rhetoric based on territorial motives. Suggests five general principles for analyzing the territorial content of discourse and discusses territorial rhetoric and rhetorical theory, territoriality and style, and two fallacies of criticism. (EL)

Illustrates the existence of meanings in conversation that are not based on the listener's interpretations by analyzing the conversations from a family therapy session. Transcripts of the conversations are appended. (HTH)