Discusses the existence of anglicisms in German as a problem for the practice and teaching of translation, in which attention must be paid to the status of loans in the German linguistic and social system. Offers an approach to the translation of transparent anglicisms and proposes a method of translation. (SR)

Defines "Estuary English," a fast-growing accent of British English that is spreading across England. Discusses its usage in the British business community; its acceptability and future; and its implications for business communicators, teachers, and consultants. (SR)

An investigation of the sociolinguistic features that govern contemporary use of the Italian formal ("Lei") and informal ("tu") forms of address suggests that teachers of Italian must help students become aware of the complex factors underlying the choice of form, rather than just drill them in usage. (12 references) (CB)

Presents basic rules governing the use of German predicates that are interpreted as but not synonymous with "be" or "put" in English, focusing on the verbs' special characteristics and correct usage in authentic German sentences. (12 references) (Author/CB)

A pilot study attempting to determine the feasibility and value of a cognition-based study of classifiers in Chinese demonstrated that the use of the classifier "tiao" was not an arbitrary linguistic device of categorization, but represented some type of human categorization based on an imputed salient perceptual property of extension of…

Discusses bilingualism in written cuneiform texts from ancient Babylonia and Sumeria. Describes the development of formats and techniques that enabled two or more languages on a single document to coexist harmoniously and productively. (SR)

The growing presence of children of immigrant families in the public school system in the bilingual region of Catalonia provides us with an opportunity to study how young multilingual and multicultural speakers construct their social competencies and their identity within the specific context of a gate-keeping social institution such as the…

Spanish language teachers are encouraged to introduce popular sayings, figures of speech, and proverbs into the language curriculum, both as a means of maintaining the usage of the expressions and to bring variety to the language taught. Definitions, characteristics, origins, and general uses of such expressions are outlined. Some of the most…

This paper is concerned with a discourse-based approach to lexis and, in particular, the discourse role of lexical patterns or lexicalized sequences which are completely or partially preassembled and more or less fixed in form. Lexical patterns, their function in a community's codes, and the cultural differences that may arise in their use, are…

This article discusses the equivalency in meaning of synonyms in one language, and the problems encountered in attempting to translate synonyms. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

A discussion of the use of the imperfect tense in French, aimed primarily at speakers of English and German. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Donnellan's distinction between attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions is extended to include Lewis' basic categories. The distinction as applied to sentences is brought out by investigating the consequences of the failure of presupposed sentences. Stalnaker uses Donnellan's distinction to support his theory of creating an…

The factors which influence a speaker's decision to use one categorization for an object as opposed to others that are available are analyzed. The categories that are most used in speech are basic level categories established at the most abstract level at which the category members: (1) share a number of physical and functional attributes, (2)…