"Ouh que c'est laid!" "Oh this is ugly!" is one of the comments among the 11,800 hits on Google for the sequence "la fille que je sors avec" [the girl I go out with]. Often the comments include the idea that the whole expression has been taken from English as a direct calque. The authors of the present keynote…

The role of language contact in linguistic change remains a polemic issue in the field of contact linguistics. Many researchers (Weinreich, 1953; Lefebvre, 1985; Prince, 1988; Silva-Corvalan, 1994; King, 2000; Sankoff, 2002; Labov, 2007) believe that there are limits on the types of linguistic patterns that can be transmitted across languages,…

Discusses the relationship between the brain, language, and communication in the following sections: (1) combining words, (2) language as a system, (3) language as a function of the brain, (4) the science of communication, and (5) language as a social institution. (NCR)

Common language usage is considered from four perspectives: "situational" linguistics and language, "natural language," linguistic interdisciplinarity with the social sciences, and common language as a "social technology," or subject of pedagogy. (MSE)

The phenomena of overlapping talk is examined. In numerous types of conversational exchanges, people briefly acknowledge the utterance that overlapped their own and then recycle an overlapped utterance and/or introduce a new topic. Three types of objects are illustrated and discussed: an acknowledgment token, an assessment, and a commentary. (four…

This document shares Dr. Walt Wolfram's views on African-American Dialect. He states that the most elementary principle is that all language is patterned and rule-governed, and one can apply that principle to African-American English, Appalachian English, and to every other dialect that is examined.

Major controversies which have arisen from linguists' research into Black English and implications of this research for education of dialect-speaking students are discussed. (JD)

This essay examines a Brooklyn College-based research collective that placed African American languages and cultures at the center of the composition curriculum. Recovering such pedagogies challenges the perception of the CCCC's 1974 "Students' Right to Their Own Language" resolution as a progressive theory divorced from the everyday…

Presents a variety of social contexts for verbal interaction between adult and child and between children. Discusses the variations in interaction caused by different contexts, as well as features that are consistent across contexts. (HTH)

Everyone has a name. Names are more than a symbol or label. The culture of a people finds expression in the language they employ. When personal names are studied historically, philosophically, etymologically, and psychologically the reflection of the social and natural environment can be perceived. This paper focuses on the analysis of the…

Expounds Firth's views on the problems of translation and surveys theories of translation by some Firthian linguists. Defines the concept of meaning and the concept of varieties within a language, discussing various dialect categories and other categories that relate to constant features of speakers' and writers' use. (MES)

Discusses the ways in which the lexical items, grammatical code, and the uses of the vernacular sign language, Providence Sign Language (PSL), are interdependent and based on content rather than on an arbitrary, internally defined system. (PMJ)

The development of language conditions in Helsinki, including its origins in a Swedish-speaking area, makes it possible to observe many processes of sociolinguistic interest. Helsinki's colloquial Finnish has served as a model for the evolution of colloquial Finnish throughout the country. (Contains eight references.) (Author/LB)

One perspective for literary analysis assumes certain divisions of language, grammar, and "worlds of discourse." The worlds that language can express are the phenomenal, extensional, intensional, and alternate systems. Within these contexts, certain linguistic features universally affect responses to the world created and the language used. One…

Examines acculturation patterns in the language of Samoans in San Francisco. (AM)