Presents a linguistic and sociolinguistic analysis of the use of the words "socialism" and "socialist" in Jean Jaures' discourse, with a view to answering the following questions: (1) what is the process of semantic change, from a philosophical term to a political one; and (2) what is the nature of "political…

Traces the development of discourse analysis in modern linguistics, and presents a semantic analysis, based on a comparative word frequency count, of two political speeches made by the socialist Jean Jaures. (AM)

A brief reveiw of recent literature in France on bilingualism, or more properly, diglossia. In the context of a bi- or pluri-linguistic situation, dialectology, linguistic distribution of both speakers and systems, official and regional languages, and the problem of belonging to a linguistic community and ethnic identification are discussed. (AMH)

Challenges the hypothesis that different linguistic codes are specifically related to different social groups, observing that children's language usage shows qualitative differences determined by the situations they face rather than by their sociocultural background. Supports this observation with an analysis of children's attempts to explain the…

In the context of reflections on sociolinguistic research in Alsace, results are discussed of current studies which indicate the importance of the city/rural area distinction in use of French and Alsatian. The complexity of the actual linguistic situation in Alsace is described. (AMH)

Discusses the procedure and objectives of studies on adult instruction in Creole and the use of Creole in the primary grades. The complexity of the sociolinguistic situation, the extent of illiteracy, the state of the educational system, and implications of change in attitudes to both Creole and French are discussed. (AMH)

Based on experimental research, examines the relationship between American Sign Language and French Sign Language, and sociolinguistic variation in both sign languages. (AM)