This paper asks whether the imprecision and complexity of natural language, as opposed to the language of science or logic, represent flaws or essential functional properties. It is argued that ambiguity can be manipulated by the speaker through environmentally derived characteristics. A discussion follows on the study of the functions of language…

Criticizes Bernstein's formulation that there is a fundamental qualitative difference between working class and middle class speech--that working class speech is "restricted" and middle class speech is "elaborated." It is suggested that the relationship between social class and type of speech cannot be well described or…

An introduction to this issue of "Langue Francaise," on the relationship between linguistics, sociolinguistics and sociology. An overview is presented of the research methodology of each of these sciences, the contributions of generative grammar, and the point of view of the linguist, sociolinguist and grammarian. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

The author considers the issues of linguistic diversity (distribution of variation within communities) and linguistic distance (degree of variation between varieties within a system or between variety systems). He seeks to emphasize the usefulness for further development of distance studies of the concept of language area (Sprachbund), the…

This issue dealing with language discusses language and social structure, social progress and sociolinguistics, oral and literate traditions, Portuguese Creole dialects in West Africa, a framework for describing how languages spread, socio-cultural conflict and bilingual education, linguistic variation in one-language societies, the language…