This paper aims to account for what at first appears to be a unique constraint in the formation of A-not-A questions. Most previous analyses employ the pragmatic notion of focus. This paper argues in favor of a presuppositional account, which has wide empirical coverage and is independently motivated and more theoretically coherent than the notion…

This research study analyzed an electronic conversation that occurred on the LabNet network, an electronic network for science teachers. A conversation about the nature of science that occurred for eight weeks among ten science teachers was analyzed in order to identify the characteristics of messages that start and sustain a conversation and to…

This research employs a mixed theoretical perspective drawing on elements from interactionism and social constructivism. In this study, a discourse analysis is performed on conversations among intra- and inter-institutional mathematics and science teaching faculty participating in reforming content classes for teacher candidates in the Maryland…

A pilot study examined whether a relational control model can be used to evaluate cross examination in academic debate. Four cross examination periods in the 1994 Cross Examination Debate Association Nationals final round were videotaped, transcribed, and coded (using the Relational Communication Control Coding Scheme). Results indicated that the…

In 1977, John C. Merrill, a mass communication scholar, found that many scholars believed that the sixties movement of new journalism is in some way related to existentialism. To find this out, a study identified six main themes of the philosophy of existentialism (as espoused by Jean-Paul Sartre) and looked for the presence of these themes in the…

This bibliography lists books, articles, and other related sources dealing with the area of the history of communications and rhetoric. The 50 citations cover both the history of western communications as well as studies focusing on American communications and rhetoric. (HB)

In contrast to overly cognitive and excessively reductive information models of communication, Hans Georg Gadamer provides a viable alternative for discussing conversation. There seems to be a competition in Gadamer's writings between conversation and text, so that his project of textual interpretation has an important impact on his treatment of…

"Verbal atom cracking," according to Kenneth Burke, entails a process where the reader reconstructs what the writer has constructed--a necessary process before the reader can begin deconstructing. Foregrounding opposites, rather than looking for apposites, may not be the best way to approach discourse that covers especially esoteric…

This article presents the difficulties literary pragmaticists have with literary genre, and asks to what extent linguists belonging to the Halliday tradition might be able to help. Literary pragmatists need a taxonomical apparatus that will apply to genres of all kinds, literary or otherwise. They also need to describe how different genres help…

The focus of this paper is the variation within the narrative type of text. Specific attention is on the variation between two rather extreme forms of narrative: simple stories written for children that may be described as stereotypical in structure, and an artistic story, "The Steppe," by A. Cexov. The view is taken that stories are…

Two meanings of the word "discourse" are distinguished. The first treats discourse as conversation (D1), and the other refers to different ways of understanding (D2). Rather than seeing the two kinds of discourse as different, they are seen as having an important connection, particularly in classroom communication. Examples are drawn from the…

A study based on textual analysis of sales letters is reported that evaluates the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) approach to teaching the writing of sales letters. Thirty business letters written by undergraduate business students and executives were analyzed. The forms of cohesion, voice pattern, and information focus of the…

This paper explores some of the characteristics of literary discourse (interaction, dialogism, and reciprocity between authors and readers on the one hand, and the multilayeredness of the levels of discourse, on the other) in their relation to the communication of verbal irony as a form of secret communion, drawing particularly on Sperber and…

Scholars can learn much from analyzing discourse within a statewide political debate. A study used W. R. Fisher's theory of narrative rationality to analyze the first intra-party debate (April 16, 1990) between Republican candidates for Governor of Arkansas, Sheffield Nelson and Tommy Robinson, to ascertain the narrative rationality employed by…

Narrative study of teachers and teaching is seen as sited at the intersection of many current intellectual and professional concerns. These include not only classroom practice and professional careers, but also the Self, Experience, Memory, Identity, Autobiography, Life History, Agency, and Structure. Narrative as genre presents post-modernist…