Open-system words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) can function as exponents of a clause relation and be predictive of the organization of written discourse while closed-system words (a, the, and, because, etc.) cannot. Supporting criteria are presented. (DAG)

Uses conversational analysis to investigate how people accomplish a specific enactment of their everyday lives. (MH)

Investigates the relevance of a Gricean model for accounting for coherent discourse in courts of law. Identifies 19 rules of discourse congruent with Grice's Cooperative Principle in transcripts of eight trials. However, finds courts must coerce participants to be cooperative. Concludes that Grice's theory does not account adequately for coherent…

Discusses how utopian talk about cable television as a dramatic new technology swept through the policy arena in the 1970s. Analyzes this talk as a discursive practice to demonstrate both the value of discourse analysis and some contradictions of the policy process. Shows how discourse thus helped shape an institution that it failed to describe.…

Discusses how the question of the insufficiency of rational language may open the door to the possibility of a legitimization of rhetorical language. Argues for an interpretation of language, based on the German philosopher Novalis, who affirmed that language is a game, language does not occur for the determination of beings, and the tongue speaks…

Examines Henry Johnstone's (a former editor of "Philosophy and Rhetoric") ironic play on the different uses of the terms "rational,""argument," and "explanation," when he discusses two of his favorite philosophical topics, rhetoric and argument. (NKA)

Analyzes the discourse of news programs on U.S. network television to show that, through a particular set of linguistic choices, major socioeconomic developments are ascribed to individuals, while politics and economics appear to function as logical entities in isolation from each other. (JD)

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)