This paper presents linguistic evidence for communication problems in everyday classroom interactions where children are dialect speakers. It also examines the problem of coding language functions for use in experiments. (RB)

Presents an informal history and criticism of a rhetorical style that proposed a set of rules designed to pin words and syntax down so that a writer's meaning could not be misconstrued. Describes how the style was appropriated for textbook use by an innovative group of American writers during the mid-nineteenth century. (AEW)

Explores the relationship between interaction involvement as a traitlike dimension of communicative competence and the use of grammatical cohesive devices to create explicit ties within conversation. Presents three dyad types and argues that the patterned use of cohesive devices is sensitive to the nature of the dyad type. (MM)

Presents the computer program SEPARATE.BAS. and discusses how the use of microcomputer technology for processing textual data offers increased capabilities for the qualitative researcher in speech communication. Discusses how SEPARATE.BAS. assists in the research task of dividing transcripts of interviews or discussions into separate text files…

Educable mentally retarded students (N=6) made daily dialogue journal entries for 40 days. Analysis of topics, language functions, and syntax revealed that: students produced functionally relevant, interactive communication; topics were more appropriate to chronological (18 years) than mental age (10 years); and written linguistic production was…

Uses an analysis of children's interpretations of a complex episode of social interaction to illustrate three features that distinguish them from robot plans and that form a basis for a theory of the development of social action: human plans (1) are social, (2) operate on interpretations, and (3) are used, not just executed. (FL)

Investigates the effects of breakdowns in referential and factual coherence on text comprehension and reveals that the processing of factually inconsistent information hindered other information in passages. (FL)

Tests Halliday's model of context/text relationships and how these relationships vary for 71 children in first, second, and third grades. Children produced oral and written messages about a circus in narrative and persuasive genres. Texts were analyzed for elements of linguistic cohesion and length of clausal themes. (Author/CB)

Describes a study that investigated the distribution of the pronouns of address in the German Democratic Republic by looking at the pronouns and terms of address in different newspaper tests. Pronoun use was dependent on the kind of text, on party membership, nationality, social class, and the roles of the addressee and addressed. (SED)

Presents a comparative reanalysis of two studies into why some story events are more memorable than other events. Also proposes a theoretical account of the identified variables (story-grammar category, causal chain, causal connectivity factors to recall, and other measures of story understanding) and their influence on the comprehension of…

Discusses an approach to teaching French language and civilization by examining the creation of news events from otherwise insignificant news items. Recent headlines and news articles serve as illustrations. (MSE)

Describes discourse development in the sign language of 24 profoundly deaf children. Findings indicate children were acquiring appropriate discourse strategies comparable to those used by hearing children in spoken conversations and adult deaf signers. (DF)

A broader view of grammar looks at text rather than the sentence as the framework for communication from thematic, semantic, and pragmatic points of view. (MSE)

Describes instances in which conversation topics are audibly formulated in a classroom during a one-hour science lesson and how this task may be problematic for both participants and analysts of classroom talk. (HTH)

Examines two texts showing that the relational propositions (frequently implicit) that arise out of a combination of independent clauses involve every clause and that they occur in a pattern of propositions that connects all of the clauses together. Shows how relational propositions are essential to the functioning of the text. (HTH)