Shows that getting involved with a story is the primary dimension of story appreciation, and that different readers interact with the same story in different ways. Indicates that the first-person grammatical device invites readers to identify with the main character, but whether or not they do is a complex function of story properties,…

Introduces this special issue which describes several approaches to semantic knowledge representations. Discusses the various quantitative procedures employed in the articles, noting that they can also serve as theoretical approaches to knowledge representation. (SR)

Describes a computational model of high-dimensional context space: the Hyperspace Analog to Language (HAL). Shows that HAL provides sufficient information to make semantic, grammatical, and abstract distinctions. Demonstrates the cognitive compatibility of the representations with human processing; and introduces a new methodology that extracts…

Offers an introduction to the theory and implementation of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a theory and method for extracting and representing the contextual-usage meaning of words by statistical computations applied to a large corpus of text. Gives an overview of applications and modeling of human knowledge to which LSA has been applied. (SR)

Suggests that despite intuitively evident connections, there are difficulties with identifying language as a significant cause of conflict escalation. By looking at links between language, discourse, conflict, and conflict resolution, this article aims to see of a discussion of these four key terms can contribute to a better understanding of…

Examines stories told by the members of a Roman Catholic parish staff to each other in informal settings, investigating ways they reinforced or challenged the organization's power structure and reflected changes in cultural traditions. Shows that much story content reinforced the church's hierarchy, and occasionally reflected changes in the larger…

Preservice teachers acting as participant-observers coded questions of 544 elementary students and 25 teachers. Students asked few questions; one-third were procedural, one-third content focused, and one-fourth involved social functioning. Teachers asked many questions, two-thirds informative. Both groups asked few imaginative or heuristic…

Describes an undergraduate writing course on communicating public policy. Discusses how academic instruction in professional and technical communication can show students, by simulating practical experience and by developing a discourse analytic perspective, what elected officials, governmental staff, and non-profit non-governmental organizations…

Notes that less skilled readers have difficulty suppressing active, but irrelevant, information during comprehension. Investigates whether the mechanism responsible for suppressing the inappropriate meaning of a word is an automatic process or a strategic, controlled one. Finds that less skilled readers may have difficulty executing a strategic…

Demonstrates that the degree to which something is learned is the degree to which valued new and contextualized behaviors are exhibited. Suggests that learning is commonly assessed by matching learner discourse with "what is in the teacher's mind," a process of discursive colonization. (SK)

Traces development of the campaign history genre by exploring two key exemplars: T. White's "The Making of the President 1960" and R.B. Cramer's "What It Takes: The Way to the White House." Reveals that the books make sense of the election, develop a reciprocal relationship between private man and public figure, and create an authoritarian reading…

Examines the metaphor of the "wall separating Church and State" for its argumentative functions in the discourse of Supreme Court argumentation. Traces the rise and fall of this influential metaphor over time as it achieves paradigmatic status, becomes regulated by common usage, and achieves contested status. (PA)

Argues that discourse knowledge (knowledge readers have of the way a text or story is organized) can be taught from the earliest grades using authentic contexts and quality children's literature as well as the children's own writing. Suggests specific books and specific strategies to foster the students' knowledge of three patterns of…

Deconstructs the "kiddie porn" media frame used by the industry and mainstream media to characterize Klein's ad campaign. Extends scholarship on the construction of youth in the media, showing how the kiddie-porn frame produces and reproduces common-sense beliefs about the nature of youth. Suggests a metadiscourse encompassing the…

Suggests that, as more students gain access to the Internet and learn to write in electronic environments, literacy researchers in computers and composition need to study the discursive practices of these students outside the classroom in relation to the classroom. Explores the emergence of a lesbian, bisexual, and gay youth cyberculture as an…