In the context of linguistic theories of politeness, it is possible to consider the concept of a continuum of politeness that includes degrees of speaker egocentricity. It is proposed that directives in Brazilian Portuguese follow a hierarchy of politeness forms based on a theory of pragmatic markedness: that the more marked for politeness a…

Twenty 2- to 5-year-old children were observed during separate play with their mothers and fathers in an attempt to more clearly define patterns of touching. Specific purposes of the study were: (1) to identify the different functions of touch; (2) to determine the frequency of occurrence and duration of different types of touches; (3) to describe…

This study analyzed the acquisition of the interactional competence in an environment where children used two or three languages every day. Two aspects were examined: the acquisition of culturemes such as thanking and greeting, and the comprehension of indirect requests. The bilingual children observed were eight Swedish-Estonian children, six…

The purpose of this research was to investigate nonverbal communication through channel perception while observing any significant differences among race, sex, and social class background variables. In addition, differences and/or similarities in Afrocentric and Eurocentric world views in regard to nonverbal channel perception and cultural…

Indicated that encoding and decoding abilities improve with age, and that the two abilities are related.

Idiosyncratic studies illumintate the unique characteristics of a phenomenon, while generic studies create general statements based on the conformity of many phenomena. This document explicates Joseph Hayes' article, "Gayspeak," in terms of this distinction and seeks to define gay studies as a legitimate academic discipline. The way in which Hayes…

A study involving 12 students (7 to 20 years old) was conducted to show that a population, classified as trainable mentally retarded, in a non-institutionalized, non-residential public school setting could learn to use the Blissymbolics system to "talk" by pointing to the appropriate symbol. In the 3 months of the project's initial…

Provides strong support for the view that there is no one area of the face which best reveals emotion, but that the value of the different facial areas in distinguishing emotions depends upon the emotion being judged. (Author)

Understanding how laughter communicates helps to explain how individuals respond to laughter in intercultural situations. There are three manifestations of laughter: reflex responses to particular physical stimuli; automatic reactions to informative stimuli that can be intentionally controlled; and symbols encoded with semantic meanings…

In a study of the relationship between kinesics and bias, video tapes of two anchormen of local news shows in New York City were examined. The purposes of the investigation were to determine whether each anchorman would exhibit specific kinesic behaviors associated with audience perceptions of positive bias, negative bias, or neutrality; and to…

The paper discusses the assessment of infant adaptive behavior and its relationship to the adaptive behavior of the mother, focusing on the discovery of disruption and asynchrony in early mother-infant interaction. The development of the earliest patterns of interaction between mother and infant is discussed, along with the relationship between…

The relationship between movement, masculinity, and femininity is examined. Two connections are seen between movement and gender: movement as an expression of personality and movement as a medium for expressing personality. A survey of the literature is presented discussing society's concept of accepted sex role behavior. A study is reported in…

The Supreme Court's 1973 decision striking down restrictive abortion laws in Texas and Georgia has significantly shaped the rhetoric of the Right to Life movement in both tone and substance. This paper explores how the Court's decision has influenced the movement's definition and development of issues. In addition, it examines the verbal and…