Sociopragmatic ambiguity (SPA) is claimed here to differ from other, better-known types of ambiguity, in terms of its locus, cause, and effect. SPA is characteristic of whole-discourse features rather than of lexical items or phrases. The ambiguity is one of social rather than ideational or semantic meaning. It is claimed that SPA arises through…

Television is composed of multiple cultural and linguistic codes. The understandings that non-native speakers (NNSs) of English in the United States derive from these codes carries important implications for their attitudes toward the host culture and its language, and also for evolution of their second-language identities. A study investigated…

This historical study looks at the social role of the American college for the period between the Civil War and World War I. The book argues that colleges of the period were at the intersection of powerful social forces and emerged as one of the winners in the resulting changes. Colleges began the period as agents of ethno-religious subcultures…

This study investigated six students' understandings of and difficulties with qualitative and numerical methods for analyzing differential equations. From an individual cognitive perspective, the obstacles found to influence the development of students' understandings included the function dilemma, the tendency to overgeneralize, interference from…

A sociocultural framework for examining the use of English as a Second Language (ESL) in Hong Kong is outlined and discussed. It incorporates or draws on concepts of the socio-historical nature of language, critical analysis of communication, and systemic-functional analysis of language use. Using this framework to analyze the current situation of…

Suggests and presents evidence that the South's recent change over from net out migration to net immigration represents the reversal of an 100-year trend. (Author/AM)

Data seem to show that low infant physical affection correlates with high societal violence and crime. However, this trend seems to be altered by sexual body pleasure during adolescence. Repression of premarital and extramarital sex, class stratification, small extended families and high God religions significantly correlate with adult violence.…

There are four basic dimensions of social change (demographic trends, employment trends, technological advances in research and development, and the results of psychosocial research on the intellectual acuity of the aged) that explain why adult education for older citizens is the most exciting frontier in education in our country. (Author/BP)

Attitudes to Welsh and English are shown to clearly reflect the historical relations of the two languages. Effects of recent immigration and industrialization and urbanization are also shown to have an effect. Variables correlated with attitudes are linguistic background, age, sex, length of residence. (SCC)

Deals with the relationship existing between the signifier and the signified components of signs, and with problems in the definition of signs. It is also concerned with recognizing the relationship of semiotics to developmental psychology and ethology. (Available from Semiotica, Co-Libri, P.O. Box 482, The Hague 2076, The Netherlands)

Programs, particularly, language teaching, undertaken in Sweden with a view to promoting immigrant adjustment, involve folk high schools, voluntary adult education associations, and municipal adult education. Reaching the isolated immigrant woman and arranging family courses are some of the avenues explored. (JH)

The Special Labor Force Report shows that 8.7 percent of workers changed occupations between January, 1972, and January, 1973. The article discusses and tabulates data related to current patterns of mobility; demographic characteristics; flows among occupations; distribution by age, sex, and race; and job and industrial mobility. (Author/MW)

To better understand the complexity of organizational life as a cultural system whose members share particular values, attitudes, and ways of knowing, and to understand the role of women in this culture, a study was conducted using female managers at 12 high technology companies in California's "Silicon Valley." Informants were selected…

A collection of texts in Upper Tanudan Kalinga, a language spoken by about 3,000 people in three villages in the Philippines, includes texts recorded and transcribed from native speakers, edited for clarity and style, and checked for accuracy of cultural content. Four types of discourse-genre are represented: narrative-fiction and…

This study concerns the problems posed by modes of interlinguistic communication, translation, and individual bilingualism, on which depend the quality of relationships between two ethnic communities belonging to a single political entity. It also addresses a frequent question about the need for translation in a bilingual country like Canada. The…