Noting that the growth of linguistics as a discipline has been accompanied by an awareness of the relevance of linguistic research to the study and teaching of reading, this paper examines four points at which linguists and reading researchers have met. The four areas reviewed are: (1) linguistic methods in teaching reading, (2) sociolinguistics…

Critically examines contemporary interactional studies of the cultural specificity of human language. The study is a cross-cultural analysis of misconstrued communications in human interaction, ascertaining whether these interactions are crucially dependent on nonlinguistic variables. (CB)

Discusses the nature of the difference between dialectology and sociolinguistics and suggests that the findings of dialectology are relevant for use by sociolinguists. (30 references) (CK)

Investigates simultaneous talk in face-to-face conversation using the analytic framework of "floor" proposed by Edelsky (1981). Analysis of taped conversation among speakers of Japanese and among speakers of English shows that, while both groups use simultaneous talk, it is used more frequently by Japanese speakers. A reference list…

As an epilog to a theme issue on morality in discourse, this article examines the various types of morality in dialog, focusing on premorality and proto-morality, sincere authenticity versus reflective ethics, and the moral voices of modernity. Concludes that morality is an intrinsic feature of any dialog, and it is a multidimensional,…

Explores a theory of 'politeness' which claims to describe and explain some universal features of dialogue, and considers what new insights it might give into teacher-pupil dialogue. Uses it to analyze two interviews between a teacher and pupil in order to assess the implications of any new interpretations. (Contains 20 references.) (ASK)

Using a case study approach, this article examines the challenges faced by a cooperating teacher and student teacher during their collaborative planning conversations. I draw on several analytical frameworks, including sociolinguistics, speech act theory and discourse analysis, to analyze the cooperating and student teacher's efforts and struggles…

The Linguistic Human Rights (LHRs) paradigm is motivated by the desire to combat linguistic discrimination, where speakers of discriminated languages find themselves unable to use their preferred language in society at large. However, in an increasingly globalised world where speakers may feel the need or the desire to travel across state…

This paper starts from the premise that Sperber and Wilson's account of verbal irony is adequate and generalizable. It can be successfully extended to account for verbal irony in literary discourse by paying particular attention to the questions of attribution, recontextualization and attitude communication. The paper further argues that…

Analysis of two Harold Pinter plays, "The Birthday Party" and "The Dumb Waiter," illustrates the complementarity of cohesion and coherence in discourse analysis. Coherence is defined as the structure of verbal interaction on a higher level than grammar. Cohesion is defined as the resources of a language that generates…

The communication of "person" has been a particularly elusive area of Japanese discourse. The elusive status of the person term (as distinguished from the Indo-European personal pronoun) raises the question of whether such terms, along with titles, kin terms, proper names, age-status terms, and zero forms, may all be part of a single…

This study describes special questions (SQs) and disjunctive questions (DQs) in English and Polish. Central to the study is the interrogative mood and the illocutionary force of the question; interrogative structures without illocutionary force are excluded. "Speech Act Theory" (SAT) is used as a label for certain tendencies in the…

Reviews distinctions between negative and positive letters and summarizes the advice commonly offered for conveying negative messages. Outlines the tenets of Grice's theory of conversational implicature, and discusses sociolinguistic explanations for the use of indirectness in negative messages. Analyzes the texts of several letters, using Grice's…

Discusses how children in one society on the Papuan Plateau, Papua, New Guinea, learn about making and responding to requests based on a strategy of appeal. (FL)

Examines the rating scale and the testing procedure of the oral interview for evidence of discourse competence. The paper suggests that a careful examination of the processing capabilities might serve as a valid indicator of their discourse competence. (24 references) (GLR)