Investigates the contraction of negatives in a corpus of discourse and writing in order to permit comparison of the relative influences of various linguistic and social parameters on contraction. Argues that pragmatic and morphological interpretation of negatives entails that negative contraction and auxiliary contraction should be distinguished…

Investigated effects of stuttering on gesture for adults and children. Found through transcription of videotaped narratives that during bouts of stuttering, the coexpressed gesture always waits for fluent speech to resume. Also found that the lower ratio of spoken words to coexpressed gestures for children may be due to lower attentional/cognitive…

In the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and use, learners' gestures have mainly been regarded as a type of communication strategy produced to replace missing words. However, the results of the analyses conducted here on the way in which Dutch learners of Japanese introduce Ground reference in speech and gesture in narrative show that the…

As an example leading toward a social grammar of language, three emotions are analyzed in English and Yoruba. Certain communication features in English that lie in intonation and stress require a change of grammar in Yoruba and that these changes are subject to further categorization through status and solidarity. (Author/RM)

This article discusses the interactive behavior that accompanies verbal exchange. It specifically describes a set of experiments designed to isolate an important subset of interactive behavior, the vocal (as opposed to the verbal) and to relate this information to a wide range of social impressions resulting from verbal exchange. (Available from…

Different bases for an underlying strategy for the teaching of languages are discussed. (Available from Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland) (RM)

Because proficiency in nonverbal communication is as important in international business communication as it is in one's own culture, temporary residents need to learn how to improve communication. This paper explores several ways business communication specialists can help improve sojourners' nonverbal fluency for specific cultures. Temporary…

This article attempts a definition of "culture" and "language." It discusses the relationship of language to culture, and cultural features concomitant to language. A course in ethnolinguistics is advocated as part of the preparation for language teachers. (AM)

In a semiotic study exploring whether the visibility of both ends in a dyadic interaction affected a third party's evaluation of the interactants, subjects evaluated two versions of six simulated employment interviews. The six male applicants for employment simulated overgesticulation, lack of adequate eye contact, moderate aggressiveness, kinesic…

Noting the limitations of recent word recognition research, this paper suggests ways that these limitations might be overcome and then extends these suggestions into a framework for distinguishing between good and poor readers' ability to comprehend words. The paper begins by reviewing the major models of word recognition and discussing their…

People take their folk gestures seriously, which is illustrated in the fact that several folk gestures, such as raising the right hand and kissing the Bible, are used in religious and legal ceremonies. These and other gestures, such as making the sign of the cross and knocking on wood, are folk gestures used today which have their roots in early…

A system of 20 Fortran and PL/1 programs, developed for an analysis of aphasic and normal speech transcripts, is described in detail. The programs aid in lexical, grammatical, paralinguistic and statistical analyses, as well as in data preparation and correction. They can also be used in schizophrenic and other kinds of pathological language and…

The emotional states of an adult male American speaker, as reflected in 30 utterances, were evaluated by 12 subjects on nine 7-point semantic differential scales. The subjects also evaluated the utterances on similar scales for pitch, loudness, and speed. Significant correlations were found between some acoustic variables and the judgments of some…

This article stresses the need for examining the total context of language, including the biological characteristics of the speaker, and anthropological, psychological, geographic, and socioeconomic factors. (CLK)