Describes a study of the use of the terms "will" and "gonna" in the speech of two three-year-old girls. The results suggest that one of the functions of "will" and "gonna" is to impart different causal relations to the two practices of "undertaking" and "planning." (HTH)

Advances the development of a classification system, based on the salient speech act distinctions made by ordinary people, which can be of practical use in characterizing extended segments of discourse. Presents an attempt to use speech act theory in the quantitative study of interpersonal communication. (HTH)

It is proposed that, in regard to the question of whether linguistic theory is a friend of the literary translator, the imposed opposition of theory and practice gets in the way of working from the basis of the implied discourse that supports literature's communicative function. (MSE)

The concept of information as it is used in ordinary discourse is elucidated, using philosophical methods of conceptual analysis. Five essential and four derivative properties of the phenomena of information are identified. This information concept is contrasted with several proposed concepts in information theory literature, communication theory,…

Shows that Antin's talk poems satisfy basic needs. Discusses Antin's view on an art that addresses the concerns of "common life" and concentrates on feelings that do not depend on elaborate and evasively self-sustaining formal constructs. (EL)

Presents results of a study indicating that constructive and dramatic play contexts affected language to the extent that children use more exophora in the constructive context and more linguistic verbs, third-person pronouns, and displaced reference tenses in the dramatic context. (HTH)

Analyzes salutations in 75 letters of application. The 28 applicants who used masculine greetings used four different forms. The 47 who used sex-neutral greetings used 19 different forms. Looks at the applicants' qualifications, sex, and region of the country in which they live as factors influencing the writers' choices of salutations. (SED)

Describes some of the major structural features of the modern Japanese written language as they are manifested at the level of graphology. (FL)

Examines recent claims by L. Moskovit about the use of the unattended "this"; argues that, in various cases, they fail to predict the referents that readers actually assign to a "this"; and offers an alternative framework for describing the considerations that go into distinguishing clear from unclear uses of an anaphoric…

Analyzes the interaction strategies employed by a conversational participant who is unsure that he or she understands the content or the context of the interaction well enough to contribute appropriately to it but feels impelled to continue participating anyway. (FL)

Suggests that a factor underlying the complex analysis of prose is amount of elaboration. Reports findings of two experiments supporting this idea. (FL)

Presents a method of discourse analysis applied to the discrimination of genuine from simulated suicide notes used in previous studies. Reported significant differences among language measures as well as the results of a multiple discriminant analysis using the discourse analysis. A language profile of the suicidal individual is given. (JAC)

Examines the role played by relative clauses in American Sign Language. (FL)

An analysis of two opposing talks given in connection with a television program; that of a union member and that of an employer. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Reviews the evolution of the term entropy from the mathematical and mechanical perspective and discusses implications for its use in the communication field. (MH)