Discusses the problem of the British student of French confronted with French humor in classic and modern French literature. (AM)

Summarizes developments of attempts to standardize written and spoken Japanese, from World War II to the present. (AM)

Discusses the poor translations from English into Spanish of election material distrubuted by the county of Los Angeles. The translation errors in selected pamphlets are analyzed. (NCR)

Describes the difficulty in reading and writing Persian script which may contribute to illiteracy in Iran and notes the political and religious considerations which make change difficult. (MKM)

Even English speakers do not always know when to use a hyphen. Examples are given of some fairly clear-cut cases where the hyphen should be used, leading to the formulation of some usable rules. (IFS/WGA)

This article presents an overview of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic research done in the field of alexia between 1838 and 1969. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This article reviews studies done on alexia and describes experiments designed to distinguish qualitatively between pure alexia (marked by the absence of oral and written problems) and other forms of alexia. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Takes issue with standard characterizations of Japanese expository prose styles on the grounds that they view language and culture as exotic and static. Draws on multiple interpretations of ki-sho-ten-ketsu (classical rhetoric) offered by composition specialists in Japan. Suggests that researchers and writing teachers should be wary of…

Questions the universality of academic genres and discusses ways in which national rhetorical styles affect strategic choices in writing. Recommends that teachers of English for academic purposes should take seriously the role of raising the awareness of differences in rhetorical style among discourse community members. (42 references) (Author/CK)

This study examined the ability of 70 deaf and 58 hearing students at the college and middle school levels to discern and apply knowledge of printed word morphology, especially morpheme segmentation and semantic analysis. Deaf college students scored similarly to middle school hearing students. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Examines the likelihood of the dominant position of English coming under serious challenge as a world language. Discusses factors such as writing systems, standardization, and modernization.(Author/VWL)

Explores Walter H. Beale's "A Pragmatic Theory of Rhetoric," and places it in relation to other theories. Discusses Beale's semiotic theory of written discourse, its contribution, and relates Beale's aims to the rhetorical theories of James Kinnevey and James Britton. (SR)

Study of the pragmatics of politeness conventionally draws on conversational data, but can be extended to some genres of written text. A framework is described that analyzes politeness strategies in terms of impositions (claims and denials of claims) and reveals some stylistic features in scientific papers and in popularizations. (Author/CB)

Analysis of hearing-impaired adolescents' signed and written sentences expressing simple locative state relations found noun reversal and pragmatic focus errors in 7 percent of signed and 15 percent of written responses. Most errors were produced by profoundly hearing-impaired signers attending public day school. (Author/CB)

Asserts that basic writers must learn to consciously manage written patterns to become better writers. Reviews six studies focusing on lexical and syntactic differences between written and spoken English, and suggests focal points for teaching writing patterns to basic writers. Examines two case studies which demonstrate writing pattern…