Results of this study of 20 elementary school principals indicate a relationship between the language usage of school administrators and the intensity of certain characteristics in their administrative behavior. (MK)

A study of 10 typical women investigated the effect of fingerspelling task length on temporal characteristics and perceived naturalness of speech produced during simultaneous communication. Speech produced during simultaneous communication was rated as less natural and demonstrated increased interword interval, diphthong, work, and sentence…

The author differentiates eight types of verbal communication: (1) Socioeconomic, (2) Domestic, (3) Professional, (4) Sociocultural, (5) Public, (6) Legal-Administrative, (7) Recreational, (8) Entertaining. (HK)

The two studies of predisposition toward verbal behavior (PVB) reported in this paper examined the behavior of interactants who have dissimilar verbal predispositions in task-oriented discussions. In the first study, 20 groups of three members each were given an interpersonal task that involved reaching a consensus. In the second study, 17 pairs…

Recent empirical findings have challenged Vygotsky's theory regarding the self-regulatory functions of children's private speech. This study hypothesized that semantic tasks and instructions to talk out loud would maximize private speech production. Results supported Vygotsky's notion that private speech does not disappear with age but "goes…

Maternal directives to 10- and 18-month-old children were analyzed for verbal and nonverbal aspects. The findings emphasize the multimodal nature of mothers' messages and the way language occurs in an action context and not as isolated output. There was no indication that verbal output replaces nonverbal at this age, but the verbal and nonverbal…

A study was undertaken to separate elements of maternal speech heavily influenced by the children's language levels from those representing the mothers' consistent style or strategy for "teaching" language. A striking similarity was found between speech mothers used with their daughters and that used with their daughters' friends. (MSE)

This paper represents an effort to explain the language development of the child within the analytic frame of overtly observable data and without recourse either to mathematical models or to postulating hypothetical underlying forms. From longitudinal studies of two-year old children conducted by the author as well as from similar data reported in…

In this discussion of various aspects of sexism in language the following principles or basic ideas are set forth for the reader's consideration: (1) the irrational and undesirable idea that male terms stand for the whole population is harmful and the practice should be eliminated; (2) language which suggests that women are, by virtue of their…

Argues for a more active role for the college English instructor in helping students write and speak standard English more effectively. (SW)

Examined large corpus of spontaneous English conversation for pronunciation of "the" and speech patterns immediately following. Found that speakers use "thiy" (versus "thuh") pronunciation to signal immediate suspension of speech to deal with a problem in production; problems were at many levels of production, including articulation, word…

This article discusses an abnormal type of speech in the Cocopa language called animal talk, which deals with how humans refer to the communication between humans and animals and between animals themselves. The derivation of animal talk from normal speech and speech of mythical animals is discussed. (NCR)

Expanded version of an address presented at a conference in Regensburg and at the Universities of Erlangen and Marburg. (WB)

Hypothesized that counselors would be rated higher on social influence, client satisfaction, and willingness to see the counselor when they matched client predicates than when they mismatched. Results indicated that knowledge of a client's primary representational system may be of help in increasing a counselor's social influence. (RC)