A discussion of the term "grammar" in the context of second-language teaching and learning looks at various approaches to/definitions of grammar, including linguistic, psychological, sociological, and pedagogical grammars. Pedagogical grammars are viewed as learning tools for the second-language classroom, and their properties and components are…

Contrasts differences in language use across the Japanese workplace, including women's speech. Examines what is referred to as "manifestations of power" among Japanese working women. Explores "resistance to subordination" among female university students who have not yet entered professional or domestic life. Comparison of the…

This paper reviews some of the findings of research on classroom questions, and considers ways in which sociolinguistic theory may help resolve some questions it leaves unanswered. The paper is divided into three sections, which correspond to three features of questions. The three features are the "context" of questions, the "content" of…

A discussion of the field of contrastive linguistics (CL) begins by defining the relationship between theoretical and applied CL in terms of the concept of finalization, which originated in the philosophy of science. Then, the historical development of CL in the United States and Europe is sketched. This development is seen as characterized by a…

This study continues a series of reports on the work of the team which has carried out a sociolinguistic survey of multilingual communities. This study deals with an early sample of the results of the St. Lucian survey, and in particular with the extent to which they provide support for the theoretical model of linguistic choice and change, and…

Recent proposals concerning integration of foreign language study with social science study in New South Wales are described, and the background of debate in linguistics against which these proposals may be viewed is outlined. (RM)

Discourse analysis, a field that reflects an interest in language as text and social interaction, is discussed. Discourse analysis deals with the way language varies from one communicative situation to another; textological analysis deals with the internal organization of such discourse in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Assumptions in…

This study attempts to bring some clarification into the concept of translation, especially into the theoretical problems presented by the difficulties of translation. The following aspects of the question are treated: (1) translation in the past and present, including the controversy over translation as an art or a science, the relevance of…

The author takes up the problem of the origin of Negro dialects in the United States. On the basis of the very limited number of lexical items which can be traced directly to African languages, McDavid discounts the role of African influence on the patterns of current Negro English dialects. William Stewart suggests the possibility of extended…

This study examines the use of the auxiliaries "avoir" and "etre" and of the prefix "re-" in the speech of Franco-Ontarian students. It is found that the tendency to use non-standard constructions such as "j'ai arrive en retard" and "je vais remettre la roue 'back'" has its origins in historical…

Three papers from this issue of the Working Papers are provided here. "The Nesting Constraint in Child Language," by Patrick Alan Brogan, discusses a child's ability to perform complex, internally embedded sentences. It is hypothesized that difficulty stems from a child's limited short-term memory. "A Framework for Studying Kin Term…

Social scientists have tended to neglect the relationship of language and "reality" in their formulations of mind, self, and society. Recently, however, a flurry of studies dealing with the congruence of language, cognition, and society has emerged. The initial sources of this concern may be traced to the rich tradition of the French…

The language or dialect used in a conversation will vary according to the social situation, the identity of the participants, and the conversational topic. Bilinguals will often switch languages to suit the topic or the listener; persons who speak both standard and dialect forms of a language will use the standard in formal conversation and the…

The author reviews some recent theories, experiments, and observations in psychology and psycholinguistics which challenge the basic assumptions of the audio-lingual method of foreign language teaching: Language learning is habit formation, requiring analogy rather than analysis; meaning can be learned only in the matrix of allusions to the…