Analysis of the role of paraphrase in the cohesion of everyday oral discourse suggests that combining two methodological approaches to discourse analysis, using distribution of specific discourse elements and sequential relationships within discourse, creates a more empirical foundation for analysis, leading to a more accurate formulation of the…

Two speech styles, origin-myth telling and ritual wailing, found among the Shokleng Indians of south Brazil are analyzed from the perspective of two specific functions of speech style: (1) for indexing or highlighting the subject matter in certain contexts, and (2) for relating the contexts and subject matters to other contexts and subject matters…

Expressiveness in language is necessary for effective communication in every field. Prose should be effective not only in literature but also in science, business, law, and other specialized fields. Writing institutes across the country specialize in a new pedagogy for teaching expository prose, and one of the chief instruments for clarifying this…

A study to develop a methodology for discovering how one important notion or semantic category, "frequency of occurrence," is expressed in words, phrases, or other linguistic devices in academic English began with a search for devices expressing that notion, by analyzing text from a news magazine, a New Zealand geography textbook, and a…

A study of the process of listeners' and readers' generation and verification of expectations about spoken and written discourse presented to them examined the possible interactions between surface form and cognitive constraints, to establish baseline measures of the effectiveness of different sentence structures in constraining the production of…

The handbook, intended for use as a guide for special education teachers, presents an overview of language arts and communication skills. Instructional considerations and teaching ideas (objectives and activities) are presented for three major types of skills: (1) receptive language arts (listening skills, reading, phonics, sight vocabulary,…

An instructional procedure to improve communication skills was used with four trainable retarded children (ages 8 to 10 years). (DB)

Investigates the role of social factors and marital status in the use of expletives among married and single American women between the ages of 40 and 55. (AM)

A report on a two-year teaching experience at the University of Paris' Department of Expression and Communication Sciences and Techniques (DESTEC), a multidisciplinary center for the study of language in its communicative function. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Discusses the methodology of writing a text which will transmit the essential information of a source text, including correct and incorrect procedure. (Text is in French.) (AM)

An experiment was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that English cliches reflect sex-specific styles of speech and that sex-specificity of expressions is related to differential usage by male and female speakers. Hypotheses were derived from Tyler's claims that the "neutral sphere" is infused by the male style, rendering it an inhibiting…

This paper examines semantic constraints governing the occurrence of interjections with various other types of grammatical phenomena. Four interjections, "oh,""ah,""say," and "well," which typically occur embedded in sentences, are discussed in terms of their semantic properties and possible contexts. It is…

This leaflet explores the rediscovery of the importance of oral language, greatly prompted by the influence of linguists on school practices since 1960. The term "oracy," a recently coined British term which refers specifically to the ability to use the skills of speaking and listening, is discussed in several contexts: new information…