A construction occurring in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is examined: NPi "call" NPi V"-ing", as in "the woman call herself working." First, a number of reasons that such a form might be overlooked or dismissed as an AAVE dialect form are outlined. Then the sociolinguistic method is applied to the…

A study investigated the phonemic and morphophonemic patterning of the glottal stop in Agutaynen, a Meso-Philippine language, and some comparison with two northern Philippine languages. Agutaynen glottal stop has as its sole origin a neutralization of contrast rule, the operation of which can be noted in three different linguistic environments.…

It is suggested that the notion of prestige has been too readily appealed to in explanations of language variation and change, and that such appeals result in apparent contradictions and conceptual confusions. The term "prestige" has been used by sociolinguists in widely differing ways, and, as a result, the nature of the term has become…

Recent studies of American Indian dialects of English have focused on efforts to determine whether the sources of such dialectal variation lie in interference from the native languages or in developmental errors in the acquisition of English. The implication of both assumptions is that educational intervention and the passage of time can eradicate…

Idioglossia is a private communication system, most commonly occurring in twins. It also occurs between singletons and between other siblings of multiple births. These communication systems range from manual gestures to a fully developed vocal language with its own grammar. The literature of idioglossia is scanty and largely anecdotal. Much of the…

An analysis of Old English phonology examines two traditional sound changes, the First and Second Frontings, that have been analyzed by different linguists with rather abstract theories. These analyses are refuted, and a more concrete and realistic treatment is proposed for each. Examination of Anglo-Frisian Brightening, or First Fronting, raises…

This study examines quantitatively the systems of tense, mood, and aspect in Puerto Rican Spanish spoken in the United States. In the community under investigation, code-switching is an integral part of the communicative repertoire; also, the codes tend to be switched at points around which the surface structures of Spanish and English map onto…

Filled with detail and trivia, this book is an informative, nonspecialized, and often humorous consideration of the vitality and variety of the English language. The book examines the origins of language and the history of English; the process of word formation and the origins of words; the problem of jargon; the prevalence of slang; synonyms,…

Research in crisis intervention has prescribed how trained but non-professional individuals should and do act in a crisis situation. The present study, however, focused on the types of responses untrained helpers use to respond to the crisis of another individual. Results indicate that types of responses vary significantly, with probing and…

Explores the role of sex of speaker and sex of addressee in determining the appropriateness of forms of address. (AM)

This study investigates the relationship between social class membership and certain syntactic variables within a generative-transformational linguistic framework. Fourteen syntactic items are considered. Linguistic performance is more variable and complex within the higher ranking groups. (TL)

A contrastive analysis of the National Language, or Standard Mandarin, and some of the major dialects of China is presented. It serves to reveal the points in the standardization process where confusion is most likely to occur. The phonological component seems to be the most problematic. Available from Humanities Press, Inc., Atlantic Highlands,…

Deals with problems related to the choice of an instructional model for the teaching of spoken English in India. A local model, Educated Indian English, is suggested as a realistic choice. (Author/RM)

Attempts a preliminary typological study of sub-languages constituting one national language. Three types of sub-languages are distinguished: natural language, language of science, and informational language. They are compared to the three levels of language analysis, speech, norm and system. (RM)

There exists a need to identify and recognize the Spanish dialect used in the Southwest United States in order to change the tradition of looking at it as inferior to standard Spanish and to English. The history of the Spanish-speaking people in the Southwest and of the changes in their culture brought about by colonialism is connected with the…