Certain apparently deviant, inverted forms of the French imperative (e.g. "pas touche!" for "ne touche pas!") are analyzed. A number of phonosyntactic explanations that focus on phonological order, rhythm, and intonation are examined. The strength of the imperative intention is also considered. (MSE)

By presenting examples from eight Appalachian children's books, this essay argues that these books promote standard English and denigrate toward Appalachian speech. Although the books address the emotional effects of assimilation and isolation, they fail to understand the language Appalachian children actually speak. (KS)

Argues that the most important constraints on any proposed sound change are naturalness and minimality. Examples from Western Romance languages are provided to show how these principles can be applied to the best advantage, and a new solution is proposed to the problem of /erk/ from *DW in Armenian. (27 references) (Author/JL)

The media interview is seen as a form of information exchange that is increasingly important and needs to be understood. Similarities and differences in written and oral interview reports are briefly examined, and interview objectives, forms (dialogue or narrative), and language functions are discussed. (MSE)

The author of an article on the spread and teaching of English as an international language (EIL) replies to others' response to his ideas on the role of English in various international circles, the contexts and patterns of use of English, and English second-language instruction. (MSE)

Discusses the orthography of an unstandardized written language variety, the English-lexicon Creole used in Britain by writers of Caribbean heritage. Argues that while the spelling of Creole is highly variable, writers are choosing conventions that emphasize the differences between Creole and standard English. (Author/JL)

Argues that linguists have ignored diversity within the northern Khoesan (NK) group of languages of Southern Africa and this has had serious repercussions both for speakers of these languages and for linguistic theory. The variation that appears within NK has been ignored in part because a single variety has been misunderstood as being the !Kung…

Examines the realization of accent in Indian English (IE) compared to American English produced by teaching assistants in similar contexts. In teaching discourse, a lexically accented syllable is often realized in IE with a relative drop in frequency and without a reliable increase in amplitude. (Author/VWL)

Categorization of lone lexical items from one language embedded in another is often difficult due to their ambiguous status as either loanwords or codeswitches. Following variationist principles, a comparative method is used to disambiguate lone English-origin nouns in Acadian-French discourse. (Author/VWL)

Two articles examine Ebonics and its relation to the teaching of English as a Second Language. The first suggests that teachers of English, literacy instructors, and educational policy makers need to take language differences into account. The second suggests that the issues around Ebonics are the issues vital to all language educators--language,…

The dequeismo phenomenon is occurring more frequently in spoken Spanish in both Spain and in Latin America. Introduction of the preposition "de" before "que" in nominal complements exploits one recourse in Spanish, namely the deictic capacity of prepositional "de" as a marker or introducer of the speaker's…

Tests claims regarding "get"-passives in English via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. The data suggest that "get"-passives are often associated with two types of pragmatic implicature. Finally, the corpus provides evidence of three types of variation with 'get'-passives: regional, stylistic, and diachronic.…

Presents brief annotations of 20 children's books and picture books, in 3 categories: books that contain dialect, books in 2 languages, and books with interesting ways of using language. (SR)

The distribution of variants of the FACE and GOAT vowels in Tyneside English (TE) is assessed with reference to the age, sex, and social class of 32 adult TE speakers. Effects of phonological context and speaking style are also examined. Patterns in the data are suggestive of dialect leveling, whereby localized speech variants become recessive and…

Outlines a research project conducted in Brittany in 1994 and 1995. The object was to investigate the attitudes of young people in Brittany (ages 8-18) toward varieties of language in the region, using a questionnaire survey and interviews. A brief description of the project is followed by a discussion of the sociolinguistic situation in France.…