The history of the Homeric epics confirms the structuralist argument that development of a written language enables some men to oppress others. (JH)

Differences in communication and interaction styles of groups defined as literate and those defined as oral are discussed. (RM)

Five prominent issues in quantitative sociolinguistic discussions of speaker classification are summarized and discussed, and a case study that attempts to extend the available methodology is examined. The five issues include the following: (1) to what extent are speaker categories emic or etic? (2) do speaker categories encode local inter-speaker…

A method of evaluating bilingual-bicultural education programs that has a sociolinguistic basis uses samples of the language spoken by a number of bilingual program students as they go through their school day. A random sample of the child's speech would be continuously recorded for an hour, with a bilingual observer taking running notes on where…

A system of classification for tellings and retellings by Panama's Kuna Indians reveals the dimensions of their structure and function, textually, contextually, strategically, and ethnographically. Kuna verbal life can be characterized in terms of three distinct ritual-ceremonial traditions marked by three distinct languages, settings, sets of…

Discourse analysis of an interview with a Mexican American immigrant mother concerning her children's education in the United States and her relationship with the school provides an understanding of the adaptations of an immigrant in organizational relationships and how language reflects and influences those interactions. The model of discourse…

The role of local attitudes in recent orthographic reform in Kope is examined. The previous Kope orthographic tradition is outlined, and two areas apparently requiring reform (nasal/fricative variation and vowel clusters versus semivowels). The concerns and the greater awareness among the locals regarding these orthographic changes are explored.…

A study of the discourse of Ga'dang, a Philippine language, focuses on normative discourse and persuasion, especially the ways in which the former is used to accomplish the latter. The first five chapters outline the theoretical framework of the study, placing normative and persuasive discourse in a philosophical context and relating them to the…

A study was undertaken to evaluate the child's capacity to judge the acceptability of French interrogative utterances on three levels--familiar, standard, and educated. A second objective was to consider the resulting observations in the light of certain sociocultural parameters. The test, one that had been used for adults in French second…

An investigation was conducted by students in a linguistics seminar which had two parts, a matched-guise questionnaire and a semantic differential questionnaire. The content and results of the latter are presented here. The objective of this part of the study was to determine what attitudes French-speaking Swiss students had toward languages they…

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…

Research has demonstrated that many linguistic features correlate with social stratification of speakers and that these features often serve as social identifiers that trigger language stereotypes. An experiment was conducted to verify these findings with regard to Portuguese ethnic groups. Judges from four Portuguese-speaking ethnic groups…

This article argues that language study for teacher education should be planned, and presents an outline of a possible M. A. level course in applied linguistics for mother tongue teaching. (Editor)

The relationship among the family and the bilingual socialization of the child are explored in this sociolinguistic study of a sample of preschool Chinese children. The importance of the family as socializing agent is clarified. (Author/JH)

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