This collection of papers by leading experts from a range of disciplines is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Anthropological Approaches," includes: (1) "'Style' as Distinctiveness: The Culture and Ideology of Linguistic Differentiation" (Judith T. Irvine); (2) "Variety, Style-Shifting, and Ideology" (Susan…

This paper situates languages in the framework of European construction, analyzing problems resulting from the definition of languages' official status in the European Union (EU) juridical system. It explains that the process of European construction is historically defined by means of two distinct features (it is an open process, and at the same…

Genericization theory developed as a response to claims from outside of linguistics that generic use in brand names (for example, using Kleenex as a generic noun for all facial tissues, or Xerox for all photocopiers) is the result of marketing factors or misuse by consumers. This paper examines the linguistic factors that create an environment…

Critical review of Frederick J. Newmeyer's article, "Linguistic Theory, Language Teaching, Sociolinguistics: Can They Be Interrelated?,' in "The Modern Language Journal," v57 n8 p405-10 Dec 1973. (RL)

Discusses relevance of language acquisition and use to educational practice and the student's school performance. (GB)

The author found through experimentation that a well-used metaphor can facilitate persuasion and attitude change. The author's hypothesis is that inclusion of similes will increase persuasiveness but that use of metaphors instead of similes would have a greater effect in attitude change. (MS)

This study was designed to assess some of the differences in the information about the speaker which is communicated by conversational" and dynamic" styles of nonverbal vocalic communication. The experiment and results are discussed by the authors. (Author/MS)

Provides a brief overview of the main methodological tools used in studies of language attitudes, focusing on the paradigm of speaker evaluation. Discusses the kinds of findings emerging from these studies and speculates on priorities for future language attitude research. (EKN)

Discusses the importance of research on language attitudes, especially in a multilingual situation and gives examples of recent research. (EKN)

Explores the distribution of /ai/ monophthongization in African-American and European-American speakers in Memphis, Tennessee. Presents evidence of extensive glide weakening in the African-American community in Memphis and compares it to the degree and contexts of glide weakening in the European-American community. (Author/VWL)

Presents results of a longitudinal study of Murcian Spanish carried out following a real-time approach with a retrospective trend design in order to detect and measure the apparent increasing diffusion of standard Castilian features from Northern peninsular Spanish. (Author/VWL)