Suggests that sociolinguistic knowledge is realized from the beginning of language use. The roles of formulaic language and of interactional consequences are described as explanations for the acquisition of style-switching. (30 references) (Author/JL)

All speakers bring to even simple verbal encounters complex presuppositions and expectations that may create discourse interference. A second-language encounter carries a complex and often inexplicable expectation load. Language expresses meaning and intentions, but also carries social import. The value or appropriateness of speaking itself varies…

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the use of swear words by women elicits more negative perceptions of the speaker than the use of the same words by men. Subjects (undergraduates) read vignettes describing fictitious clients' initial interviews at a mental health center. One described a forty-year old teacher troubled by…

This report is intended to provide information regarding the bilingual child to persons in early childhood education who are involved with bilingual children. The first section discusses the nature of language. A section on linguistic diversity discusses the origins of dialects, their relative value, speech styles, and code-switching. A section on…

The data analyzed for this report was obtained as part of an interdisciplinary project on the measurement and description of widespread and relatively stable bilingualism in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Greater New York City area (Fishman, Cooper, Ma, et al. 1968). The area studied by the team of linguists, psychologists, and sociolinguists…

Native French speakers (N=56) were critical of French slang expressions spoken by French youths. A previous study found that the native speakers considered Americans' use of the same slang even less acceptable, suggesting the need for careful consideration of teaching such terms in French-language classrooms. (Author/CB)

Suggests an alternative approach to the variable rule method of accounting for linguistic variability. This alternative approach, which is sensitive to social context and the relevance of meaning, is used to support an analysis of "-ing/in'" variability in some North American industrial workers' speech. (SED)

Based on an interview study of 138 kindergarten children, the data for the most part did not support Bernstein's ideas. Speech style indicators did not cluster into elaborated and restricted variants. Neither social control strategies nor school achievement scores were differentially related to elaborated and restricted variants. (PD)

Examines conversational arguing style of three groups of language learners: students from a Hispanic background (G1); those who lived for a year in a Hispanic country (G2); and those who were in contact with the language only as part of their tertiary-level education (G3). Findings reveal that G1 and G2 students exhibited a similar argumentative…

In their study in 1990, Clark and Isaacs identified five properties and seven defining features that distinguished between English ostensible and genuine invitations. To see if Persian ostensible and genuine invitations could be distinguished by the same features and properties, the present study was carried out. 45 field workers observed and…

This paper considers a distinction frequently used in sociolinguistics and ethnography of speaking to describe speech events: their formality or informality. Three principle meanings of "formality" found in the literature concern whether the formality relates to properties of a communicative code, properties of the social setting in…

The relationship between teachers' expectations of students' communicative competence in the classroom and certain aspects of teachers' language during interaction with students was investigated in a study involving 55 nursery school and primary school children and their seven female teachers. The teacher expectation model used in the study…

Several types of narrative errors are discussed that were found in the course of an analysis of stories collected in casual settings from a number of American speakers in undirected conversation. The approach to the question of error correction is sociocultural; the emphasis is on the motivation for the error correction. This paper explores the…

This paper holds that the outcomes of formal procedures between low-status groups and those in authority over them are largely symbolic or marginal in character. Language and gestures are said to define the involvement of these groups with authorities either as joint participation in policy making or as conflict. Whether a political action is…

The linguistic varieties in use in the Chicano speech community of East Austin (Texas) and the attitudes toward them were studied. Data were collected from field work done in a section of Austin that comprised over half of the Chicano population. The section was a practically segregated urban neighborhood and somewhat isolated from other ethnic…