Results of a statistical study of the two imperfect subjunctive endings in Spanish and Latin American journalism show the use of "-se" to be decreasing, although usage is slightly higher in Spain. Use of the imperfect subjuntive with an indicative meaning is also slightly more common in Spain. (MSE)

This article investigates methodological problems involved in a discourse-centered exploration of societal ideologies, and in particular, in an ongoing research program studying publicly accessible discourse in a number of European countries related to interethnic conflicts, the construction of ethnic or national identities, and nation-building…

Traces the history of Africans in Mexico and the Costa Chica and compares elements of the regional speech as described in a 1958 study with data collected on-site in 1991-1992. Findings indicate that the successful introduction of public education coupled with the ubiquity of the mass media have reduced or eliminated the more distinctively…

Discusses relative clauses in Hong Kong English and considers questions about its morphosyntactic feature system, comparing relevant attestations from local data to those found in other varieties of English. Examines ways relative constructions in Cantonese may affect how relative clauses in Hong Kong English are formed and how the relative clause…

Investigates tense, modality, and aspect in the English of adult Malay speakers. Tense and aspect (TA) in Malay and English are first contrasted to arrive at a specification of what Malay speakers have to learn about English TA. Then the use of TA in two English conversations with Malay-speaking subjects is examined and compared with a…

Argues that instruments normally applied to the analysis of discourse, and that originate in the Western tradition of analyzing language, must be used with extreme caution in analyzing new varieties of English. To substantiate this claim, the article uses as an example the recent work on the emergence of Batswana English. (Author/JL)

This paper explores the long and winding road to integrating linguistic approaches to vernacular dialects in the classroom. After exploring past roadblocks, the author shares vignettes and classroom practices of her collaborator, Rachel Swords, who has succeeded in bringing Contrastive Analysis and Code-switching to her second and third-grade…

An examination of pattern in certain languages spoken primarily by Blacks has both a narrow and a broad focus. The former is on structure and development of the creole spoken by Jamaicans in England and to a lesser extent, a Black country English. The broader focus is on the relationship between the Kwa languages of West Africa and the…

A study of middle verb constructions in Canadian French and Madrid Spanish suggests that two alleged defining characteristics of these constructions are not really defining characteristics. These are: (1) that the constructions only appear in generic sentences, and (2) that they disallow "by"-phrases of the type found in passive…

More than 250,000 of Fiji's citizens are descendants of Indian indentured laborers of diverse origins. There are still distinct social groups based on language, religion, and place of origin. However, nearly all Fiji Indians speak one language called Fiji Hindustani. Other languages, such as Gujarati, Panjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, are still spoken,…

Drawing on the growing literature on language revitalization initiatives and examples of one Andean initiative in particular, the essay attempts to synthesize some common language corpus and language status transformations that threatened languages undergo during the process of revitalization. Specifically, it looks at the often unexpected changes…

A salient characteristic of the morpho-lexical systems of the Salish languages is the widespread use of reduplication in both derivational and inflectional functions. Salish reduplication signals such typologically common categories as "distributive/plural,""repetitive/continuative," and "diminutive," the cross-linguistically marked but typically…

Sought evidence for or against the assumption that significant intercultural variation exists in the rhetorical preferences of national cultures through contrastive analysis of research articles in English (n=36) and Spanish (n=36) on business and economics written by native speakers of each language. (45 references) (Author/CK)

Tests experimentally whether stress placement in polysyllabic words differs in Singapore English (SE) and British English (BE), or whether acoustic correlates of stress differ in the two English varieties. Results suggest word-final stress in SE is not result of lexical stress placement, but combination of lengthening of final-syllable words in…

Examines ways in which modern varieties of English around the world differ in eight specific aspects of relative clause formation, focusing on the theoretical implications of some of the phenomena, their likely origins, and possible explanations for cases in which features are shared by apparently unassociated varieties. (Author/MSE)