This newsletter reports on phenomena at the intersection of linguistics and psychoanalysis and psychiatry. This issue consists of the following articles: (1) an editorial entitled "Idioms, How We Love/Have You!", on the possible reasons behind the use of idioms; (2) "The Last Renaissance (Language in a Drug Rehabilitation Community)," by Harold…

Discusses nominal-pronominal reduplication (NPR) in the language of children ages seven and nine in four situations. Younger children produced more NPR; all children produced little NPR talking to their peers and increasing amounts talking to adults. Examples are given and analyzed. (EJS)

Type/Token Ratios (TTRs) frequently fail to discriminate between children at widely different stages of language development, and may fall as children get older. Such effects are caused by a negative, though non-linear, relationship between sample size and TTR. Standardization of the number of tokens before computing TTRs is recommended.…

Analysis of parent language with toddlers with three different types of toys found few differences as a function of parent or child gender. The three contexts elicited their own language patterns and suggested that children who play frequently with dolls receive more opportunities to learn and practice language. (Author/CB)

Drawing on research regarding a midwestern credit union, factors characterizing why and how credit unions and their members use credit union documents are discussed in regard to: characteristics of document availability; structure of interactions in which documents are used; attitudes and beliefs about the documents; and functions of documents.…

Detailed analysis of frequencies of the primary auxiliary verb "be" in Scots dramatic texts leads to consideration of the typological relationship said to exist between different varieties of Scots and between them and standard English. (Author/CB)

Compares the rhetorical strategies of 20 opening paragraphs from "Psychology Today" to those in 20 first paragraphs from student essays. Observes that professionals regularly begin exposition with narratives, indirection, and irony, while students begin with rhetorical questions, truisms, and muddled strategies. Concludes that students'…

Examines the expression of temporality in the basilang speech (the earliest stage of second language development) of five adult subjects. Temporality is studied from three perspectives: morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. The taxonomy provided by the pragmatic analysis best captures the expression of time at this level of interlanguage…

Analyzes 10 edited essays written by freshmen native and nonnative speakers of English who are novice writers of English. Both groups produced approximately the same number and kinds of sentence level deviations from standard written English, but nonnatives produce fewer faulty structures and more coherent essays with clearer illocutionary guides.…

Describes the use of the English Natural Form Instruction (ENFI) computer conferencing system to teach language skills in college writing classes at Northern Virginia Community College. Highlights include local area networks; discourse processing; interactive writing; the teacher's role; textual analysis of writing by two classes; and other…

Argues that many interventions for introducing Aboriginal children to literacy continue to be based on "language deficit" models. Examines whether there is indeed a mismatch between the nonstandard spoken language of some Aboriginal children and textbook language. (RAE)

Discusses the theoretical basis, implementation, and pedagogical considerations of CALLE (Computer-Aided Language Learning Environment), a dialogue-based beginning Spanish language instruction system. CALLE uses Lexical Functional Grammar Theory to analyze errors in student input. Sample screen is shown. (Author/LMO)

Summarizes the benefits and limitations of the use of story grammars in the elementary reading classroom. Provides suggestions for implementation in the classroom. (ARH)