Recounts an earlier case analysis describing ethical differences in collectivist and individualistic rhetorics experienced by a writer in a literature seminar and a public relations office. Examines how this analysis is problemmatized by alternative interpretations demonstrating how collectivist rhetoric practiced by researchers involves the…

Describes a computational model of the human process of generating text. The system design and generation process are discussed with particular attention to domain independence and cross language portability. The results of system tests are presented, the generator is evaluated with respect to current generators, and future directions are…

Reports a study of two- and three-year-olds' acquisition of complex sentences with perception and epistemic verbs that took a second verb in their complements. Complement types, complementizer connectives, and the discourse contexts in which complementation occurred were specific to individual matrix verbs. (Author/CB)

Suggests a variety of class activities analyzing the language used in French-language advertisements. (MSE)

Analysis of the discourse of eight- and nine-year-old children with emotional disturbances as compared with that of non-emotionally disturbed peers found significant differences between the groups. The analysis focused on mean length of utterances and discourse error patterns. (MSE)

Examines linguistic and social factors reflected in the development of American Czech, spoken by Czech immigrants living in rural Nebraska communities, distinguishing between fully competent, proficient, and imperfect speakers. Despite the undisputed English influence, American Czech shared characteristics with other enclave languages developing…

Describes the use of tape recorders to give feedback about the English-as-a-Second-Language writing process. Tape-recorded feedback emphasizes natural responses to the writing as a whole unit of discourse between the teacher and the writer, and takes the focus away from sentence, clause-level, and surface-level structural errors. (CB)

In-depth analysis of topic distribution, utterance functions, and structural and lexical elements in a doctor-patient interaction revealed significant differences between authentic discourse and English-as-a-Second-Language text discourse, suggesting a need for better collection of more authentic data, for a distributional analysis of…

Discusses two sets of neurological case histories: A. R. Luria's "The Man with a Shattered World," and Oliver Sack's "Awakenings." Argues that these histories display two paradigmatic explanations for the mind/brain relation, and that the movement from one paradigm to another also necessitates a movement to different forms of…

Part of a research project is presented that aims at identifying the difficulties tertiary level students encounter in reading scientific texts in a foreign language and the strategies they apply to overcome them. Strategy markers are identified and listed, and are then analyzed to interpret the linguistic difficulty and the strategy used.…

Presents a corrected and slightly expanded abstract of Alison Preece's doctoral dissertation on the development of young children's productive narrative competence, winner of the International Reading Association's Outstanding Dissertation Award for 1986-1987 (See EJ 378 645). (RS)

Argues that the interaction among the various sub-discourses that collectively constitute English as a discipline can keep alive a vision of English teachers not simply as critics, composition people, or even poets, but as men and women of letters. (RAE)

Explores one-to-one communication in teacher-student conferences in a college-level technical writing course. Examines whether the need to access their different knowledge bases would foster substantive conversational exchanges between instructor and student. (RAE)

An examination of native and non-native speakers'use of zero anaphora in English production found a similar general discourse function across the groups, although the English was frequently ungrammatical by prescriptive standards. There were important quantitative and structural differences between speaker groups in use of the device. (Author/CB)

Examines "nukespeak," the use of metaphor, euphemism, technical jargon, and acronyms to portray nuclear concepts in a neutral or positive way. Identifies two nukespeak strategies: domestication and bureaucratization. Uses two cases of nukespeak strategy by Ronald Reagan to illustrate the implications of nukespeak for the audience. (MM)