In a corpus of the most frequent French words, phonetic rules relating the end of a noun to gender are simplified, and morphological rules governing the gender of suffixed nouns are illustrated. The stratified presentation is offered to teachers for classroom use. (Author/MSE)

Study of East and West Texans' (N=62) use of double modals as single lexical items and their syntactic and semantic characteristics found that neither Aux nor subcategorization analysis could account for both single-modal and double-modal dialects. Double modals, however, could conceivably be analyzed as two-word lexical items such as idioms or…

Briefly explores the usage patterns of American English words, terms, or expressions such as "y'all" and other second plural pronouns, English conditionals, "greasy' by East-Central Pennsylvanians, who or whom, the genderless "-person" suffix, and Russianisms. (CB)

The history of "Verlan," a form of French word play involving inversion of syllables with varying degrees of complexity, is described and its phonological and morphological patterns are outlined. Appropriate and inappropriate contexts for use of Verlan, extralinguistic functions, and the results of lexicalization of verlanized words are…

In an investigation of the use of the word "hey" in pseudoquotations, invented quotations, in current English communication, tokens (n=26) were collected from public and commercial broadcasts and miscellaneous readings. A speaker uses quote formula + hey + pseudoquotation to dramatize and give emphasis to an important point. (72…

Analysis of natural speech patterns occurring between a male psychiatrist and a female patient revealed how the patient's increased use of tag questions reflected her growing independence, self-confidence, and psychological adjustment. (Author/CB)

Three- to nine-year-olds' (N=80) post-exposure production of regular and irregular suffixes indicated that subjects found it easier to learn a regular suffix when they heard it used with phonetically similar base forms. Subjects were more likely to overgeneralize the regular suffix to irregular forms when they had heard it used in conjunction with…

Explores how an anthropological perspective provides a necessary basis for an account of several aspects of the language acquisition process. Discussion focuses on how the patterns of development in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics appear to be profoundly influenced by the range of adult language structures. (Author/CB)

Addresses issues of verbal communication around the world, explores the power of various linguistic means of expressing politeness, and defines negative and positive politeness. Beneath the surface differences, cultures around the world display amazing similarities in the linguistic means of expressing politeness. (27 references) (Author/CK)

Argues that the late acquisition of the third-person singular agreement affix /-s/ in second-language learners of English is the result of a syntactic configuration that makes the ending appear ungrammatical to the learner of English while allowing agreement inflection to appear when the target language has a more robust agreement model, as in the…

Finds that temporal markers modify the availability of preceding words: segmentation markers like "around two o'clock" and "then" reduce this availability, whereas continuity markers like "and" improve this availability. Supports the hypothesis that segmentation markers lead readers not to integrate new information…

The 1980 and 1990 volumes of "The State of the Language," edited by Michaels and Ricks, are reviewed, including the selection of topics and contributors. (two references) (LB)

This analysis of 17,602 frequently used words found that 616 orthographic rimes occurred in rime families as building blocks of almost all the 43,041 word syllables. Of these, 436 were both regular and consistent in pronunciation, and only 86 had less than a 90 percent level of consistency. Results suggest the usefulness of rime units for teaching…

Analysis of a sociolinguistic interview reveals repeated presentation of ideas, words, expressions, and structures. These recurrent devices and patterns increase the effect of arguments. The immediate purpose is the listener's acceptance of the speaker's views. There is also a concern to gain recognition of the speaker's opinion of self and his…

Reports on an analysis of the forms, strategies, and functions of complimenting in one genre of written discourse. It is argued that writers use complimenting discourse strategies to establish and maintain rapport and to mitigate both global and genre-specific face-threatening acts and that these social purposes help account for both their…