Donnellan's distinction between attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions is extended to include Lewis' basic categories. The distinction as applied to sentences is brought out by investigating the consequences of the failure of presupposed sentences. Stalnaker uses Donnellan's distinction to support his theory of creating an…

The author presents this monograph as essentially a "prise de position" with regard to certain of the central questions in current debates over the nature of human linguistic systems and techniques of analyzing and describing them. While it is presumed that the reader is already acquainted with the issues being debated in linguistics in the…

This paper is intended as an outline synthesis of what is presently known about the processes of pidginization and creolization. Section 1 deals with the linguistic processes of pidginization under the following headings: (1) the learned expectancies of how to behave in a contact situation, (2) necessity and heightened attention, (3) redundancy,…

The papers included in this volume discuss the relationship of sociolinguistics to social interaction, sociolinguistic surveys, the intersection of sociolinguistics with education, and the influence of linguistics and sociology on sociolinguistics. The papers include: "Optional Rules in Grammar" (Fraser); "The Structure of Polylectal Grammars"…

This paper investigates the address avoidance of second person personal pronouns in Swedish in terms of language universals and the relationship between deviation from a universal linguistic feature and social structural change. Available from Liber Laeromedel, Box 1205, S-22105 Lund, Sweden. (Author)

Narratives from part-Hawaiian children 5 to 12 years old in a variety of circumstances were collected for several years. Typical verbal routines, ways of analyzing the data, tendency of routines to structure speech events, functions of nonnarrative routines in narrative performance, and establishing a context for narration are considered. (EJS)

The article looks at idiomaticity from the semantic and syntactic angles. After a summary of the problems arising from a semantic definition, some recent proposals regarding the syntactic behavior of idioms are reviewed briefly and evaluated. There is a sizable bibliography. (AMH)

Discusses the current meager state of knowledge of sex differentiation in language variation and concludes that poor theorizing and inadequate methodology are to blame. Describes a study of pronoun usage by male and female Japanese speakers to show that research on sex differentiation in language is possible. (EKN)

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)

Describes a study showing how a linguistic pattern of alternation affecting an entire speech community is realized in individual idiolects; an example representative of colloquial Helsinki speech is used. Results support observations already presented by Labov, according to which linguistic change is linguistically structured to a very high…

Examines the organization and function of information-withholding sequences, a conversational strategy used by participants in gossip interaction on Nukulaelae, a Polynesian Central Pacific atoll. Withholding sequences illustrate how ambiguity and repairs can be exploited to meet the communicative demands of particular interactional contexts. (62…

Historic linguistic consequences were studied in five separate areas of Atlantic Canada's Acadian population. Focus was on certain verbs in the third person present plural and the hypothesis that "allent" and faisent" are the result of hypercorrection. Results suggest complex reasons for their use and an indication of some social…