Examination of the accommodation process in interlanguage discourse in a foreign language focused on the effects of various accommodation and negotiation strategies. Dyads of English as a second language students with different proficiency levels accommodated each other in ways similar to interaction between native and non-native speakers.…

Reviews several theoretical perspectives and presents data pertinent to what makes a story likable. Examines the contribution of two story characteristics to adults' and elementary students' ratings of story liking and storyhood: the importance of the goal the protagonist pursues and the difficulty of attaining that goal. (JAD)

Examined the tense system of Samana English, a lineal descendant of early nineteenth-century American Black English. A past tense marker comparable in surface form, function, and distribution to that of Standard English was found. Comparison with varieties of contemporary Black English Vernacular (BEV) and English-based Creoles showed a structural…

Analyzes six years (from 1986 to 1991) of political debate and social action in the United States' war on drugs. Explores the characteristics of guilt-based, scapegoating drug rhetoric and how scapegoating in the drug war has been problematic. Discusses the desirability and limits of guilt as a rhetorical strategy. (HB)

Reports on two lab experiments which explored how undergraduate students process arguments and cues under ambiguous and uncertain conditions. Asks whether students use simultaneous processing or prefer exclusive processing. Indicates that students prefer exclusive processing, with no support for simultaneous. (HB)

Argues that political debates can usefully be viewed as a "televisual" form. Shows how audiences bring conventions to the viewing of debates grounded in forms dominating television narrative. Illustrates this perspective by analyzing debates in the 1984 United States Senatorial race between Jesse Helms and James Hunt. (HB)

Analyzes the public impact of the third 1992 presidential campaign debate by measuring voters' perceptions before, during, and after the debate. Examines five hypotheses concerning the effects of debates on voters. Finds that mediated debates are affected by channel and commentary. (HB)

This paper discusses the parameters of discourse topic management in terms of a multidimensional model of topic coherence; interaction between these parameters and linguistic and cognitive knowledge; effects of discourse, linguistic, and cognitive level difficulties on topic parameters; a method of assessment across all parameters and knowledge…

Reviews research in the field of language and gender from the 1970s through the 1990s, observing that language and gender research has moved away from variationist studies to broad-based ethnographic investigations and examinations of discourse and conversation where language is studied in communicative context. An annotated bibliography discusses…

Twenty different monologues were analyzed; and the interrelating roles that clause relations, lexico-grammatical cohesion, and intonation choices play in creating cohesive monologue were examined. It is argued that these linguistic resources can be exploited by speakers to signal underlying concepts and help listeners interpret the text. (Contains…

Uses the concept of family discourse to investigate the systematic structuring of social relations surrounding parents' gendered, often unequal, family responsibilities and practices. From in-depth interviews with parents in dual-earner families, two ways of analyzing parents' accounts of reasons for their divisions of labor are presented. (LKS)

Offers a comparative analysis of the historical dispute over protective legislation for women and the current controversy over fetal protection policies. Argues that, despite seeming dissimilarities, current symbols are attitudinally united with historical symbols, reducing the interests of all women to motherhood and thereby limiting women's…

This study compared high functioning adolescents and young adults with autism (n=8) or schizotypal personality disorder (n=9) in use of social language referencing. Both groups had similar rates, types, and patterns of cohesive reference errors, though subjects with schizotypal disorder used cohesive ties of reference more often and more correctly…

Describes the grammaticalization of the Swedish word "bara" (English "just") in present-day adolescent speech. "Bara" has in the last 15 years been used with 2 new functions in spoken, narrative discourse: to foreground central events and to introduce quotations. (40 references) (Author/CK)

Explores how agoraphobia is realized through the activity of storytelling. Analyzes one agoraphobic woman's narrative to articulate the narrative structuring of a panic episode, the grammatical resources systematically recruited to portray panic as unaccountable and the protagonist as irrational and helpless, and a recurrent communicative dilemma…