A study examines the way in which one group of discourse connectors, terminators, function in contemporary spoken French. Three types of terminators, elements used at the end of an utterance or section to indicate its completion, are investigated, including utterance terminators, interrogative tags, and terminal tags. (Author/MSE)

Examines how amplification (rhetorical techniques by which discourse is extended to enhance its appeal and information value) tends to increase and improve the coverage, rationale, warnings, behavioral alternatives, examples, previews, and general emphasis of technical manuals. Shows how classical and modern rhetorical theories can be applied to…

A review of observational and discourse analysis research argues that observational research is bound by a characteristics discourse with roots in early anthropological descriptions of education and suggests that, while observational methodologies and techniques have changed, the discourse of observation has always served to promote a single view…

Analyzes four research reports to identify the similarities and differences in beliefs about the nature of discourse and how one acquires knowledge about it. Considers implications of these distinctive styles for cross-disciplinary communication about discourse. (SR)

Presents a systematic investigation of the factors underlying the choice of personal reference. Five experiments examine how native-English-speaking undergraduates of Brown University refer to a professor or student in various situations. The Rule of Polite Reference (RPR) explains how speakers choose the way they will refer to a person in a given…

Traces the theoretical significance of using names as titles for situations, and applies this analysis to the United States' intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs. Argues that the names given to ICBMs preserve their utility as weapons by linking them to the myths of the nineteenth-century western frontier. (MM)

Discusses the function of media nihilism--the rhetoric of "crisis and failure"--in the 1988 Presidential Debates. Examines journalists' debate questions, noting that they painted an almost wholly negative portrait of America. Suggests that the candidate who effectively "skewers" the media on its own hypocrisy should be declared…

Describes a two-part research project examining conversation memory organization packets (MOPs) at both cognitive and behavioral levels. Explores the nature of the informal initial conversation MOP, and examines whether discourse structures correspond to cognitive structures. Finds evidence that scenes in the conversation MOP are topic-centered.…

Explores a method of combining convention and intention by representing conversation structure with conversation MOPs (schematic structures that store conversation rules as generalized episodes associated with goals the episodes achieved). Discusses how conversation MOPs process the opening portion of a dialogue in an interactive advice-giving…

A longitudinal study of twenty-four (24) Hebrew-speaking mother-infant dyads during discussions of recent events indicated that mothers commented on a small set of events and tended to mark events with exclamations or formulaic expressions that gradually progressed to a true description of events as the children got older. (Author/CB)

Observation of language patterns parents used with their verbal (N=6) or nonverbal (N=6) autistic children revealed that mothers and fathers appeared sensitive to their child's language needs, but differed in how they accommodated them. Mothers used shorter mean lengths of utterance, more prompts, and fewer direct directives than fathers.…

Addresses one of the more serious criticisms made concerning the Lacanian concept of the Real, that made by Francois Roustang, who accuses Lacan of intentionally blurring the two distinct registers of this concept. Wordsworth's poem, "We Are Seven," illustrates the Real as pure loss through its representation of family relations,…

Argues that processes of evaluating and assigning membership of categories within given collectives may be identified as operating across diverse social contexts. The maintenance of social identity boundaries is dependent on "knowing" the status of one's own category membership and accomplishing this membership through the interactional work of…

Presents and analyzes data focusing on how teacher and students moved between theory and data in a unit designed to engage seventh-grade students mostly in the deductive direction of scientific activity, and how the dialectic of education was played out in the classroom as teacher and students were engaged in the activity. Contains 29 references.…

Investigated the role of talk in peer collaborations using a computer-based scientific reasoning task. Analysis of children's talk showed that talk dyads produced more talk overall and more interpretive types of talks than talk-alone subjects. Results suggest the importance of peer collaborations as a social context that supports interpretive…