Uses an analysis of children's interpretations of a complex episode of social interaction to illustrate three features that distinguish them from robot plans and that form a basis for a theory of the development of social action: human plans (1) are social, (2) operate on interpretations, and (3) are used, not just executed. (FL)

Investigates the effects of breakdowns in referential and factual coherence on text comprehension and reveals that the processing of factually inconsistent information hindered other information in passages. (FL)

Tests Halliday's model of context/text relationships and how these relationships vary for 71 children in first, second, and third grades. Children produced oral and written messages about a circus in narrative and persuasive genres. Texts were analyzed for elements of linguistic cohesion and length of clausal themes. (Author/CB)

Describes a study that investigated the distribution of the pronouns of address in the German Democratic Republic by looking at the pronouns and terms of address in different newspaper tests. Pronoun use was dependent on the kind of text, on party membership, nationality, social class, and the roles of the addressee and addressed. (SED)

Presents a comparative reanalysis of two studies into why some story events are more memorable than other events. Also proposes a theoretical account of the identified variables (story-grammar category, causal chain, causal connectivity factors to recall, and other measures of story understanding) and their influence on the comprehension of…

Discusses an approach to teaching French language and civilization by examining the creation of news events from otherwise insignificant news items. Recent headlines and news articles serve as illustrations. (MSE)

Describes discourse development in the sign language of 24 profoundly deaf children. Findings indicate children were acquiring appropriate discourse strategies comparable to those used by hearing children in spoken conversations and adult deaf signers. (DF)

A broader view of grammar looks at text rather than the sentence as the framework for communication from thematic, semantic, and pragmatic points of view. (MSE)

Describes instances in which conversation topics are audibly formulated in a classroom during a one-hour science lesson and how this task may be problematic for both participants and analysts of classroom talk. (HTH)

Examines two texts showing that the relational propositions (frequently implicit) that arise out of a combination of independent clauses involve every clause and that they occur in a pattern of propositions that connects all of the clauses together. Shows how relational propositions are essential to the functioning of the text. (HTH)

Describes a study that compared the language abilities of first and third grade children. The children's narratives were analyzed for differences in T-units and the use of reference and conjoining. Results indicate that the older children used longer T-units and generally had more cohesive ties within their narratives. (Author/SED)

Investigates the nature of threats and their responses as collaborative units in children's discourse. Research indicates that girls prefer withhold-object or action and harm-threats while boys focus exclusively on harm-threats. Younger children produce more threats than older children, and threats occur more frequently in child-directed settings…

Compliments are not only common daily discourse, but they are also used in companies, government agencies, and universities as written recommendations to determine hiring and promotion decisions. This report analyzes compliments as to structure, form, and content; replies they evoke; characteristics of compliment givers and receivers; and manner…

Defines metadiscourse, writing about writing, and examines specific kinds of metadiscourse researchers identify, such as text connectives, illocution and validity markers, narrators, and commentary. (HTH)

Four versions of several paragraphs had the same second sentence and were referentially coherent, but they differed in causal relatedness of the two sentences. Results showed that despite referential coherence, recognition and recall memory for the causes was poorest for the most and least related causes and best for causes of intermediate…