Learners frequently encounter challenges in accurately utilizing near-synonyms in the English language. This investigation explored the similarities and differences among four near-synonymous verbs: "attempt, endeavor, strive," and "try." The analysis encompassed their prevalence across diverse genres, formality levels,…

An historical account of the use of the acute accent mark in written Spanish discusses the effects of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French precursors on the early use of the accent and on its current modern use. (CB)

A literature review pertaining to the teaching and learning of stress and intonation in native and second languages considers the functional movement, conversational English, the difficulty of learning stress/intonation, stress within words and sentences, difficulties for speakers of tone and syllable-timed languages, and tests of stress and…

Analysis of the speech of the people of Santa Maria Lachixio, a Zapotec town in Mexico shows they use a high voice to show respect toward others, and that variability in the height of pitch is unimportant. No other voice quality changes occur, such as laryngealization or breathiness. Kinship, age, and authority are important determiners of high…

The sound system of English is described in all its complexity, from the relationship between spelling and pronunciation to the rules of connected speech, focusing on the methods and rationale of teaching pronunciation of English, particularly to English as a second language learners. (CB)

This paper considers four levels of analysis in the observation of the prosodic features of pause in speech: phonetic; syntactic; semantic; and informative. On the phonetic level, a pause is related to length and intonation, and intonation in turn, being a result of the speaker's meaning, constitutes an expression of his/her emotional state. On…

Reviews common pronunciation problems experienced by learners of English as a second language who are native speakers of Vietnamese, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Punjabi. (CB)